0*  CALIF-  IJW«*BV    "» 


QJLJEEN    MARGOT 

WIFE  OF  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE 


BY 

H.    NOEL    WILLIAMS 

AUTHOR    OF    "  MADAME    RECAMIER    AND    HER    FRIENDS  "    "  FIVE 

FAIR    SISTERS  "  "  QUEENS    OF   THE   FRENCH    STAGE  "  "  LATER 

QUEENS      OF     THE      FRENCH      STAGE  "      "  MADAME      DE 

POMPADOUR  "    "  MADAME    DE    MONTESPAN  " 

"  MADAME    DU    BARRY  "    ETC. 


"  Vous  voulez  du  roman  ;  que  ne  vous  adressez-vous 
a  1'histoire  ? " — GUIZOT, 


WITH    PORTRAIT 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

153-157  FIFTH  AVENUE 
1911 


jto  edition  published  iqob 


TO 

MY  WIFE 


2133708 


PREFACE 

AT  no  epoch  in  French  history  have  women  played  a 
more  prominent  part  than  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Their  influence  pervaded  religion,  politics,  literature,  and 
the  arts.  They  protected  Reformers,  defied  Popes,  ruled 
Kings,  shared  in  every  hazard  and  danger  of  war, 
encouraged  men-of-letters,  patronised  artists  and  sculptors. 
What  a  galaxy  of  famous  names  do  we  find  !  Marguerite 
d'Angoul£me,  the  Duchesse  d'Etampes,  Diane  de  Poitiers, 
Renee  de  France,  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  Jeanne  d'Albret, 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  Mary  Stuart.  Yet,  if  we  except  the 
ill-starred  Queen  of  Scotland,  the  last  acts  of  whose  life's 
tragedy  were  played  out  on  another  stage  than  that  of 
France,  none  of  these  celebrated  women  furnish  material 
which  is  at  once  so  acceptable  to  the  student  of  history  and 
to  the  general  reader  as  the  subject  of  the  present  volume. 
For  not  only  does  Marguerite  de  Valois  typify  perhaps 
more  completely  than  any  woman  of  her  time  the  society 
of  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  but  her  career 
is  the  very  quintessence  of  romance.  "  Born  in  an  evil 
day,"  as  Catherine  de'  Medici  once  remarked  to  her,  this 
daughter,  sister,  and  wife  of  kings,  though  endowed  with 
every  outward  perfection  and  with  intellectual  gifts  of  an 
unusually  high  order,  was  from  her  youth  the  sport  of 
Fortune.  Forbidden  by  "reasons  of  State"  to  give  her  hand 
to  the  man  who  possessed  her  heart,  she  was  compelled  to 

vii 


PREFACE 

wed  the  young  King  of  Navarre,  to  whom  she  was  utterly 
indifferent,  and  who  regarded  her  with  similar  feelings. 
:<  Her  marriage,  which  seemed  to  be  the  occasion  for 
public  rejoicing  and  to  be  the  cause  for  the  reunion  of  the 
two  parties  which  divided  the  realm,  was,  on  the  contrary, 
the  occasion  of  a  general  mourning  and  of  the  renewal 
of  a  war  more  cruel  than  the  one  that  had  preceded  it : 
the  fete  was  the  St.  Bartholomew,  the  cries  and  the  groans 
of  which  resounded  throughout  all  Europe  ;  the  festival 
wine  was  the  blood  of  the  massacred  ;  the  viands,  the 
murdered  bodies  of  the  innocent  pell-mell  with  the 
guilty."1  A  union  inaugurated  under  such  tragic  circum- 
stances, and  with  no  pretence  of  affection  on  either  side, 
could  bring  nothing  but  unhappiness  ;  and  the  young 
queen,  neglected  by  her  husband  and  beset  by  temptations, 
was  quickly  involved  in  the  first  of  that  succession  of 
amorous  adventures  which  have  earned  for  her  so  unenvi- 
able a  reputation.  The  King  of  Navarre's  position,  too, 
which  was  practically  that  of  a  prisoner  at  the  French  Court, 
rendered  her  own  a  most  difficult  and  embarrassing  one, 
which  the  bitter  hostility  of  her  brother,  Henri  III.,  and 
his  insolent  mignon,  Du  Guast,  and  political  complications 
combined  to  aggravate.  Her  husband  succeeded  in  effect- 
ing his  escape  in  February  1576,  but  Marguerite  remained 
as  a  kind  of  hostage  in  the  hands  of  Henri  III.,  and  it 
was  not  until  the  summer  of  1578  that  she  was  permitted 
to  rejoin  him  in  Gascony.  In  the  interval,  she  had  under- 
taken her  adventurous  journey  to  Flanders,  of  which  she 
gives  us  such  a  vivacious  account  in  her  Memoires,  in 
order  to  further  the  interests  of  her  younger  brother,  the 
Due  d'Anjou,  and,  on  her  return  to  Paris,  had  assisted 
the  duke  to  make  his  escape  from  Court. 

1  Memoires  du  Cardinal  de  Richelieu. 
viii 


PREFACE 

Three  years  were  passed  at  that  little  Court  of  N6rac, 
which,  according  to  d'Aubign£,  "  did  not  deem  itself  of 
less  importance  than  the  other,*'  a  period  marked  by  the 
"  Lovers'  War,"  for  which  Marguerite  herself  was,  in  a 
great  measure,  responsible,  and  more  than  one  scandal,  the 
ill-assorted  couple  according  one  another  a  reciprocal  in- 
dulgence, of  which  they  both  had  certainly  great  need. 
But  at  the  end  of  158 1,  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  irritated  by 
her  husband's  demands  upon  her  complacency  and  the 
intrigues  of  his  mistress,  Fosseuse,  accepted  an  invitation 
from  Henri  III.  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  to  pay  a  long 
visit  to  the  French  Court. 

This  proved  a  most  fatal  step,  for,  after  a  brief  truce, 
the  old  animosity  between  Marguerite  and  the  King 
revived,  and  on  August  8,  1583,  his  Majesty  grossly  and 
publicly  insulted  his  sister  during  a  ball  at  the  Louvre 
and  commanded  her  to  "  deliver  the  Court  from  her  con- 
tagious presence."  The  unfortunate  princess  obeyed,  and 
on  the  morrow  set  out  for  Vendome  ;  but,  near  Palaiseau, 
the  King,  not  content  with  the  humiliation  he  had  already 
inflicted  upon  her,  caused  her  and  some  of  her  people  to 
be  arrested  and  conveyed  to  the  Chateau  of  Montargis, 
where  he  personally  interrogated  her  ladies  in  regard  to 
the  morals  of  their  mistress. 

On  the  intercession  of  the  Queen-Mother,  Marguerite 
was  set  at  liberty  ;  but  the  King  of  Navarre  refused  to 
receive  his  wife  until  Henri  III.  had  accorded  him  a 
full  and  satisfactory  explanation,  nor  was  it  until  some 
months  later  that  matters  were  finally  adjusted.  The 
princess  returned  to  Nerac,  only  to  find  herself  treated  by 
her  husband  with  coldness  and  contempt,  while  Henri's 
new  mistress,  the  Comtesse  de  Gramont  ("  la  belle  Cori- 
sande  "),  was  continually  intriguing  against  her.  Finding 

ix 


PREFACE 

her  position  becoming  intolerable,  in  March  1585, 
Marguerite  quitted  N6rac  and  proceeded  to  Agen,  one  of 
the  towns  of  her  appanage,  with  the  intention  of  estab- 
lishing herself  as  a  kind  of  independent  princess.  The 
Catholic  gentry  of  the  neighbourhood  quickly  gathered 
around  her,  and  a  cleverly-conceived  coup  d'etat  gave 
her  possession  of  the  town.  But  her  attempt  to  extend 
her  influence  over  the  adjacent  districts  ended  in 
complete  failure  ;  and,  in  the  following  November,  the 
citizens  of  Agen,  exasperated  by  her  arbitrary  treatment 
of  them,  rose  in  revolt  and  admitted  a  body  of  troops 
sent  by  the  Governor  of  Guienne  into  the  town.  Mar- 
guerite was  forced  to  fly,  and  made  her  way  to  Auvergne, 
where  she  took  refuge  at  the  Chateau  of  Carlat. 
Here  she  spent  some  eighteen  not  uneventful  months, 
and  then  removed  to  the  Chateau  of  Ibois,  near  Issoire, 
only  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Marquis  de  Canillac, 
who  had  been  charged  by  Henri  III.  to  apprehend  her. 
The  marquis  conveyed  her  to  the  Chateau  of  Usson,  a 
mountain  fortress  which  had  been  rendered  almost  im- 
pregnable by  Louis  XI.,  who  had  used  it  as  a  State  prison. 
At  Usson  the  queen  was  for  a  time  kept  in  close  captivity  ; 
but  her  charms,  combined  with  the  offers  of  the  League, 
prevailed  over  the  loyalty  of  Canillac,  and,  in  1587,  he 
abandoned  the  Royalist  cause  and  surrendered  the  fortress 
to  his  erstwhile  prisoner. 

In  this  ark  of  safety,  as  she  called  it,  Marguerite  spent 
the  next  eighteen  years  of  her  eventful  life,  and  it  was 
here  that  she  wrote  the  famous  Mtmoires,  "  by  reason  of 
which  an  enduring  radiance  will  attach  to  her  name."  x 
Very  little  is  known  of  her  life  during  these  years,  and  in 
consequence  many  legends  have  gathered  round  it ;  her 

1  Sainte-Beuve. 


PREFACE 

panegyrists  representing  Usson  to  have  been  "  a  Tabor 
for  devotion,  a  Parnassus  for  the  Muses,"  while  her 
detractors  compare  it  to  the  Capras  of  Tiberius.  After 
her  husband's  coronation,  as  Henri  IV.  of  France,  she 
hastened  to  make  her  peace  with  him  ;  but  the  King's 
advisers  represented  to  their  master  the  imperative 
necessity  of  providing  for  an  undisputed  succession,  and, 
in  the  spring  of  1593,  Marguerite,  recognising  that,  after 
so  compromising  a  past,  she  could  never  hope  to  be 
Queen  of  France  in  anything  but  name,  returned  a 
favourable  answer  to  Henri's  proposals  for  the  dissolution 
of  their  marriage,  the  payment  of  her  debts  and  a  hand- 
some pension  being  offered  her  as  the  price  of  her  com- 
pliance. Various  circumstances,  however,  the  chief  of 
which  was  the  King's  passion  for  Gabrielle  d'Estr£es, 
delayed  the  completion  of  the  affair,  and  it  was  not  until 
December  1597  that  the  marriage  was  finally  dissolved, 
Marguerite  retaining  the  titles  of  Queen  and  Duchesse 
de  Valois. 

The  princess  remained  at  Usson  for  some  years  longer  ; 
but,  in  the  summer  of  1605,  she  obtained  Henri  IV.'s 
permission  to  take  up  her  residence  at  the  Chateau 
of  Madrid,  at  Boulogne-sur-Seine.  Here,  however,  she 
only  remained  a  few  months,  when  she  removed  to  Paris, 
and  built  herself  a  magnificent  hotel  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Seine,  facing  the  Louvre.  In  this  sumptuous  abode 
she  passed  her  remaining  years,  living  on  the  friendliest 
terms  with  Henri  IV.,  the  new  Queen,  Marie  de'  Medici, 
and  their  children,  patronising  men-of-letters,  dispensing 
immense  sums  in  chanty  and  among  the  religious  Orders, 
and  flirting  with  youthful  equerries  to  the  great  amuse- 
ment of  the  Parisians.  Towards  the  end  of  her  life  she 
became  exceedingly  devout,  and  ended  by  attending  as 


PREFACE 

many  as  three  Masses  a  day.  She  survived  Henri  IV. 
nearly  five  years,  dying  on  March  27,  1615,  within  a  few 
weeks  of  completing  her  sixty-second  year.  She  was 
deeply  regretted  by  all  classes,  for  her  kindness  of  heart 
had  endeared  her  to  the  Parisians  and  done  much  to 
obliterate  the  memory  of  her  faults  and  follies,  which,  as 
I  have  shown  elsewhere,  have  been  grossly  exaggerated 
by  mendacious  chroniclers  and  the  credulous  historians 
who  have  followed  them. 

In  this  volume,  as  in  the  earlier  ones  of  the  same  series, 
it  has  been  my  endeavour  to  give  a  full  and  impartial 
account  of  the  life  of  my  subject ;  and  also,  so  far  as  the 
space  at  my  disposal  has  permitted,  some  account  of  the 
historical  events  in  which  she  was  more  or  less  directly 
concerned,  notably  those  which  immediately  preceded  the 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  With  this  object  in  view, 
I  have  consulted  practically  all  the  best  contemporary 
sources  of  information,  and  also  a  very  large  number  of 
modern  works  and  review  articles.  Among  the  former, 
may  be  mentioned  Marguerite's  own  memoirs  and  letters, 
in  the  excellent  edition  undertaken  by  M.  Guessard  on 
behalf  of  the  Societe  de  I'Histoire  de  France  ;  the  histories 
of  de  Thou,  Davila,  and  d'Aubign£ ;  the  journal  of 
L'Estoile,  and  the  memoirs  of  Brantome,  Sully,  and 
Duplessis-Mornay.  Among  the  latter,  I  must  acknow- 
ledge my  indebtedness  to  Comte  L£o  de  Saint-Poncy's 
Histoire  ae  Marguerite  de  Valois^  Reine  de  France  et  de 
Navarre,  a  very  exhaustive  work,  which,  notwithstanding 
the  marked  predilections  of  the  writer  in  favour  of  his 
subject,  is  one  of  great  interest  and  value  ;  M.  Charles 
Merki's  la  Reine  Margot  et  la  fin  des  Valois,  which  is 
distinguished  by  a  more  judicial  tone  than  the  monograph 
of  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  and  contains,  besides,  a  good  deal 

zii 


PREFACE 

of  information  not  hitherto  accessible ;  the  charming 
study  of  Marguerite  in  Comte  Hector  de  la  Ferriere's 
Trots  amour euses  au  XVIe.  siecle  ;  M.  Philippe  Lauzun's 
Itineraire  raisonne  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  en  Gascogne ; 
Mr.  P.  F.  Willert's  "Henry  of  Navarre  and  the  Hugue- 
nots in  France  ; "  Miss  Freer's  <c  Jeanne  d'Albret  ;  " 
Mr.  A.  W.  Whitehead's  "  Gaspard  de  Coligny,  Admiral 
of  France  ; "  the  excellent  biographical  notes  of  "  Violet 
Fane"  (Lady  Currie),  appended  to  her  translation  of 
Marguerite's  Memoires ;  and  the  able  articles  by  M. 
Georges  Gandy  on  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  in 
the  Revue  des  Questions  historiques,  1866. 

H.  NOEL  WILLIAMS 

LONDON,  November  1906 


zi  u 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER         I  .         .         .                  •        »  •      •      Fage         I 

II  .                  .                  .         .        .         »         '3 

III  '.         .        ..        .....         ,,         *8 

IV  .......•»         46 

V  ..«....„         57 

VI  ........         76 

VII  .....        .        .         „        93 

VIII  .        .        .        ...        .        „       i" 

IX  .....        .                         124 

„  X.        ....«•         j>       '43 

„               XI  ,        .        .                 •        •        •        »       ^57 

„             XII  .        .        .        •        •        •        •        »I72 

„           XIII  ......        .        „       19° 

XIV  .        .        .        .        .        .        .        v       201 

„              XV  .        .        •        .        «         «        •        >»2I7 

XVI  .        .        .        .         .        .         ,,229 

„           XVII  .        ......        »24S 

XVIII  .        .        ...         .         „        „       256 

XIX  „       269 

XX  ,        <        .        ,        „       281 

xxi  ,      .            ....      „     304 

XXII  .                                           *        •                 3M 

„          XXIII  .        .        .        .                 »        .        „       343 

XXIV  .        .     •'.        ..       .                           ,      364 

xv 


CHAPTER    I 

Brantome's  eulogy  of  Marguerite  de  Valois — Characteristics 
of  the  Valois  family — The  three  Marguerites — Early  years  of 
Marguerite  de  Valois — Accession  of  Charles  IX. — Critical 
condition  of  the  kingdom — Catherine  de'  Medici — Her  char- 
acter and  policy — The  Colloquy  of  Poissy — Progress  of  Pro- 
testantism at  this  period — Endeavours  of  the  Due  d'Anjou  to 
persuade  his  sister  to  embrace  the  new  religion — Outbreak  of 
the  first  civil  war — Marguerite  is  sent  to  the  Chateau  of  Saint- 
Germain — Her  education — Her  mother  summons  her  to 
accompany  the  court  on  the  "  Grand  foyage" 

"  To  speak  now  of  the  beauty  of  this  rare  princess  ;  I 
believe  that  all  those  who  are,  will  be,  or  ever  have  been, 
are  plain  beside  it  and  cannot  have  beauty  ;  for  the  fire 
of  hers  so  burns  the  wings  of  others  that  they  dare  not 
hover  or  even  appear  around  it.  ...  It  is  believed,  on 
the  advice  of  several,  that  no  goddess  was  ever  seen  more 
beautiful,  so  that,  in  order  to  suitably  proclaim  her  charms, 
merits,  and  virtues,  God  must  lengthen  the  earth  and 
heighten  the  sky,  since  space  in  the  air  and  on  the  land 
is  lacking  for  the  flight  of  her  perfections  and  renown."  l 
Thus  wrote  Brantome  of  Marguerite  de  Valois,  eighth 
child  of  Henri  II.  and  Catherine  de'  Medici,  and  first  wife 
of  Henri  IV.,  the  restorer  of  the  French  monarchy  ;  an 
exaggerated  description  no  doubt,  and  one  which  even 
the  object  of  his  adoration  seems  to  have  found  a  trifle 
highly-colouredj  but  which,  so  far  at  least  as  regards  the 

1  Dames  illustres. 

I 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

princess's  outward  perfections,  finds  more  than  a  faint 
echo  in  the  writings  of  other  contemporary  chroniclers. 

A  strange  race  were  these  Valois  of  Angouleme  ;  a 
race  which  personified,  in  both  their  good  qualities  and 
their  defects,  the  epoch  in  which  they  lived  ;  brilliant, 
frivolous,  adventurous ;  lovers  of  letters  and  patrons 
of  the  arts ;  generous,  eloquent,  quick-witted,  and 
courageous  ;  but  bigoted  and  superstitious,  cruel  and 
unscrupulous,  dissolute,  and  deceitful.  And,  as  the 
Valois  were  typical  of  their  age,  so  Marguerite  may  be  said 
to  have  been  typical  of  her  family,  "  the  most  attractive 
figure,  the  most  curious  personality  of  that  truly  royal 
race,  which  was  distinguished  by  so  many  happy  gifts, 
whose  destiny  was  marked  by  so  many  strange  vicissitudes, 
full  of  triumphs,  uncertainties,  and  calamities."  l 

Marguerite  was  born  on  Sunday,  May  14,  1553,  ift 
the  beautiful  Chateau  of  Saint-Germain,2  overlooking  the 
winding  course  of  the  Seine,  which  had  been  the  birth- 
place of  her  father  Henri  II.  and  her  brother  Charles  IX., 
and  was  one  day  to  be  the  cradle  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
name  which  she  received  had  already  been  borne  by  two 
celebrated  princesses  of  her  House.  The  first  Marguerite 
was  that  "  paragon  and  phoenix  of  ladies,  queens,  and 
princesses,"  the  beloved  sister  of  Francois  I.,  who  married, 
firstly,  the  Due  d'Alenc,on, and, afterwards,  Henri  d'Albret, 
King  of  Navarre,  and  was  the  author,  or  compiler,  of  the 
'*  Heptameron  "  and  a  writer  of  charming  verse.  By  her 
second  marriage,  Marguerite  d'Angouleme,  as  she  was 
called,  became  the  mother  of  Jeanne  d'Albret,  who 
married  Antoine  de  Bourbon,  Due  de  Vendome,  and  was 

1  Comt£  L€o  de  Saint-Poncy,  Marguerite  de  Valois,  Reine  de  France 
et  de  Navarre  (Paris  :  Gaume,  1887),  i.  3. 

*  Some  historians  have  erroneously  placed  her  birth  at  Fontainebleau, 

2 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

the  mother  of  Henri  the  Fourth  of  France  and  the  Third 
of  Navarre.  The  second  Marguerite  was  the  second 
daughter  of  Francois  I.,  the  sister  of  Henri  II.,  and  the 
wife  of  Emmanuel  Philibert,  Duke  of  Savoy.  It  was 
during  the  festivities  in  honour  of  the  marriage  of  this 
princess  and  of  her  niece  Elisabeth,  eldest  daughter  of 
Henri  II.,  to  Philip  II.  of  Spain  that  the  King  of  France 
was  fatally  wounded  in  a  tournament,  by  Gabriel  de 
Montgommery,  Comte  de  Lorges,  the  Captain  of  his 
Scottish  Guard. 

Of  Marguerite's  childhood  we  know  little,  for  her 
famous  Mtmoires  contain  but  scanty  information  about 
this  period  of  her  life.  Her  early  years  were  passed  at 
the  Chateau  of  Saint-Germain,  in  the  company  of  her 
elder  sisters,  Elisabeth  and  Claude  (married,  in  1559,  to 
Charles  II.,  Duke  of  Lorraine),  and  Marie  Stuart,  the 
little  Queen  of  Scotland,  who  became  her  sister-in-law,  in 
1558,  by  her  marriage  with  the  Dauphin  (afterwards 
Francois  II.),  under  the  care  of  Charlotte  de  Vienne, 
Baronne  de  Curton,  "a  wise  and  virtuous  lady  greatly 
attached  to  the  Catholic  religion,"  who,  according  to 
Marguerite's  eighteenth-century  historian  Mongez,  had 
been  the  gouvernante  of  seven  queens  and  princesses.1 

After  the  marriage  of  her  sisters  and  Marie  Stuart, 
Marguerite  appears  to  have  spent  the  greater  part  of  her 
time  at  the  Chateau  of  Vincennes  and  to  have  had  as  her 
companions  in  her  studies  and  games  her  two  younger 
brothers,  Henri  d'Anjou  and  Francois  d'Alenc.on,  for  the 
latter  of  whom  she  early  conceived  a  warm  affection,  which 

1  She  was  the  fourth  wife  of  Joachim  de  Chabannes,  Seneschal  of 
Toulouse  and  chevalier  <?honneur  to  Catherine  de'  Medici.  After 
Marguerite's  marriage  with  Henri  II.  of  Navarre,  she  became  her  first 
dame  tfhohneur,  a  post  which  she  held  until  her  death  in  1575. 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

was  returned    and   endured   down  to    the   time   of  the 
prince's  death  in  1584. 

In  the  meanwhile,  great  changes  had  been  taking  place 
in  France.  The  lance  of  Montgommery  had  cut  short 
the  life  of  Henry  II.  and,  after  a  brief  reign  of  eighteen 
months,  Francois  II.,  the  youthful  and  sickly  husband  of 
Marie  Stuart,  had  followed  him  to  the  grave,  leaving  the 
Crown  to  his  younger  brother,  Charles. 

Seldom  has  a  reign  opened  under  more  unfavourable 
auspices  than  that  of  Charles  IX.  The  King  was  a  boy 
of  ten ;  several  years  must  elapse  before  he  could  be 
capable  of  exercising  more  than  a  nominal  authority, 
while  never  had  a  strong  and  energetic  ruler  been  more 
sorely  needed.  The  condition  of  affairs  in  France  was 
indeed  most  critical.  To  the  difficulties  which  invariably 
beset  a  Regency  were  joined  other  troubles.  Since  the 
death  of  Henri  II.,  the  authority  of  the  Crown  had 
greatly  declined ;  rival  factions,  the  Bourbons,  the  Mont- 
morencies,  and  the  Guises  disputed  the  power  ;  the  Court 
was  a  hotbed  of  intrigue,  the  people  oppressed  and  dis- 
contented ;  while  the  antagonism  between  the  Reforma- 
tion and  the  Old  Religion  had  assumed  a  pronounced  and 
openly  hostile  character. 

Such  was  the  situation  with  which  Catherine  de' 
Medici  was  called  upon  to  deal,  when,  in  the  teeth  of  the 
rival  factions,  she  took  up  the  reins  of  government. 
During  the  reign  of  her  husband,  Catherine  had  perforce 
remained  in  the  background,  the  King  being  completely 
under  the  influence  of  his  mistress,  Diane  de  Poitiers, 
though  once,  for  a  brief  period,  when  Henri  II.  was  with 
the  army  in  Germany,  she  had  acted  as  Regent  of  the 
Kingdom.  Under  Francois  II.,  the  government  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Marie  Stuart's  uncles,  the  Due  de 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Guise  and  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  and  the  Queen- 
Mother  had  been,  politically  speaking,  a  mere  cipher. 
But  the  early  death  of  Francois  had  given  her  the 
opportunity  which  she  so  ardently  desired — for  all  her 
life  she  had  hungered  for  power  and  influence  as  a 
starving  man  hungers  for  bread — and  she  at  once 
assumed  a  quasi-absolute  authority.  And  that  authority 
once  in  her  hands,  all  her  efforts  were  henceforth  directed 
to  safeguarding  it  and  enabling  her  to  remain  the  first — 
the  only  personage  in  the  State.  She  brought  to  the  task 
a  remarkable  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  the  fruit  of 
long  years  of  quiet  study  and  observation,  a  boundless 
activity,  an  untiring  vigilance,  a  charm  of  manner  which 
few  who  came  into  contact  with  her  could  resist,  and  a 
soul  depraved  by  a  life  of  subjection  and  dissimulation. 
Her  master-passion  was  to  govern  through  her  sons,  and 
she  dreaded  every  influence  which  might  weaken  by  one 
iota  her  personal  authority.  In  State  ceremonies,  she 
loved  to  be  treated  as  on  an  equality  with  them  ;  at  the 
Estates  of  Orleans  in  1560,  her  seat  was  placed  on  the 
same  level  and  under  the  same  canopy  as  that  of 
Charles  IX.  When,  in  1569,  she  visited  Metz,  she 
desired  to  precede  him  into  the  town,  with  her  own 
cortege  of  ladies  and  officers,  in  order  not  to  be 
confounded  with  his  suite.  In  fact,  she  governed  during 
the  whole  reign  of  her  second  son,  resumed  the  Regency 
after  his  death,  while  awaiting  the  return  of  Henri  III. 
from  Poland,  and  her  influence  may  be  traced  in  almost 
every  important  act  of  his  reign  down  to  the  time  of  her 
death. 

By  the  majority  of  her  contemporaries,  particularly  by 
those  who  viewed  her  only  from  a  distance,  Catherine  is 
represented  as  a  sinister  figure,  with  little  of  the  woman 

5 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

about  her  save  her  sex  ;  a  creature  of  Machiavellian 
subtlety,  ambitious,  cruel  and  unscrupulous.  This 
estimate  would  seem  to  be  in  great  part  erroneous. 
Ambitious  and  unscrupulous  she  certainly  was  ;  but  she 
was  never  cruel,  except  when  it  was  impossible  to  gain 
her  ends  by  other  means.  Violent  measures  were 
naturally  alien  to  her  character  ;  when  she  struck,  it  was 
because  bribery,  cajolery  and  intimidation  had  failed. 
Nor  was  she,  by  any  means,  the  profound  politician 
which  some  would  have  us  believe.  The  rapid  changes 
of  front,  the  shifty  expedients,  to  which  she  so  constantly 
resorted,  so  far  from  being  part  of  any  carefully-matured 
scheme,  were,  in  most  instances,  the  manoeuvres  of  a 
timid,  irresolute  woman,  anxious  at  all  costs  to  escape 
from  the  difficulties  of  the  moment  and  incapable  of 
perceiving  any  but  the  immediate  consequences  of  her 
actions. 

If  Catherine  had  really  possessed  the  political  sagacity 
sometimes  ascribed  to  her,  she  would  most  certainly,  on 
her  assumption  of  the  Regency,  have  pursued  the  course 
suggested  to  her  by  her  able  and  disinterested  Minister, 
Michel  THopital.  This  was  to  adopt  a  strictly  neutral 
position,  and,  by  the  enforcement  of  toleration,  of  civil 
reform,  and  of  justice,  to  raise  the  Crown  above  the  region 
of  controversy  and  prevent  civil  war.  But  the  Queen  only 
followed  this  advice  so  far  as  to  avoid  siding  definitely 
with  either  party.  She  was  incapable  of  any  noble  aim,  while 
it  is  also  probable  that  she  failed  to  fully  realise,  at  any 
rate  until  matters  had  gone  too  far  to  be  remedied,  the 
gravity  of  the  situation.  "  If  one  follows  all  her  proceed- 
ings," writes  Chateaubriand,  c<  one  perceives  that  in  the 
whole  vast  realm  of  which  she  was  the  sovereign,  she 
beheld  only  a  large  Florence,  the  broils  of  her  petty 

6 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

republic,  the  risings  of  one  quarter  of  her  native  city 
against  another,  the  quarrels  between  the  Pazzi  and  the 
Medici,  in  the  struggle  between  the  Guises  and  the 
Chatillons."  "  To  divide  in  order  to  reign  "  was  the 
principle  upon  which  she  acted ;  to  give  a  little 
encouragement  to  the  Huguenots,  to  instil  a  little 
apprehension  into  the  Catholics,  and  to  accustom  both 
parties  to  regard  her  as  the  dominating  factor  in  the 
situation.  The  result  was  that  she  was  distrusted  by 
both  alike,  and  is  more  than  any  one  responsible  for  the 
thirty  years  of  civil  war  that  thenceforward  devastated 
France. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  Catherine 
desired  war.  On  the  contrary,  she  was  sincerely  anxious 
to  maintain  peace.  War  might  mean  a  decisive  victory 
for  the  Huguenots,  in  which  case  she  foresaw  that  the 
turbulent  nobles  who  would  fight  for  their  old  feudal 
rights  under  the  banner  of  religious  toleration  would 
require  far  greater  concessions  than  that  of  freedom  of 
worship.  Or  it  might  mean  the  complete  triumph  of  the 
Catholics,  and  the  consequent  supremacy  of  the  Guises. 
Both  results  were  equally  to  be  feared. 

And  so  she  expressed  her  warm  approval  of  the 
Colloquy  of  Poissy,  which  took  place  in  the  early  autumn 
of  1561,  in  the  hope  of  arriving  at  some  settlement  of 
the  chief  points  in  dispute  between  the  two  religions,  and, 
in  company  with  the  King,  assisted  at  its  deliberations. 
But  the  colloquy  came  to  nothing,  and,  after  long  and 
acrimonious  discussions,  the  rival  theologians  parted  more 
divided  in  opinion  than  ever. 

It  was  at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  and  during  the 
months  that  followed,  that  Huguenotism  reached  its 

7 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

flood-tide,  and  made  its  supreme  effort  to  capture  France 
and  to  found  a  new  national  Protestant  Church.  The 
Court  itself  was  the  centre  of  the  struggle.  High-born 
dames,  like  Ren£e  de  France,  Duchess  of  Ferrara, 
Jacqueline  de  Rohan,  the  Princesse  de  Porcien,  and  the 
Comtesses  de  Mailly  and  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  exerted 
all  the  influence  at  their  command  to  make  converts. 
Beza  and  other  eminent  divines  expounded  Calvinistic 
doctrines,  in  the  lodgings  of  Coligny  and  Cond£,  to  con- 
gregations largely  composed  of  Catholics.  The  younger 
members  of  the  Court,  particularly  the  ladies,  began  to 
manifest  a  decided  taste  for  the  new  heterodox  works,  and 
took  pleasure  in  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  French 
and  singing  the  Psalms  of  Marot.  "  The  numbers  and 
boldness  of  the  Protestants  increase  daily,"  wrote 
Languet,  "  and  the  Catholics  seemed  to  be  disheartened, 
little  by  little." 1  Fashion,  ever  so  powerful  in  France, 
was  probably  no  stranger  to  the  progress  of  Protestantism. 
"It  is  with  a  morbid  justice,"  remarks  M.  de  Saint- 
Poncy,  that  President  Henault  observes  that  "  in  seeking 
the  true  causes  of  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  in 
different  countries,  one  finds  that  in  Germany  it  was 
interest,2  in  England  love,8  and  in  France  novelty."  4 

Marguerite  de  Valois,  in  her  Mdmoires,  casts  a  curious 
light  upon  the  trend  of  opinion  in  Court  circles  at  this 
period,  and  shows  us  the  aristocratic  enthusiasts  for  the 

1  Cited  by  Mr.  A.  W.  Whitehead,  "  Gaspard  de  Coligny,  Admiral 
of  France." 

2  The  desire  of  the  minor  princes  of  Germany  to  enrich  themselves 
with  the  spoils  of  the  Church. 

8  The  love  of  Henry  VIII.  for  Anne  Boleyn. 

4  Comte  L£o  de  Saint-Poncy,  Histoirc  de  Marguerite  di  Valois,  Reine 
de  France  et  de  Navarre,  i.  26. 

8 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

latest  fashionable  craze  carrying  their  zeal  so  far  as  to 
endeavour  to  make  proselytes  by  means  more  forcible 
than  persuasive.  It  is  singular  to  find  at  the  head  of 
this  band  of  missionaries  her  brother,  the  Due  d'Anjou, 
one  of  the  chief  instigators  of  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew. 

Then,  again,  she  says,  "  is  the  resistance  I  made  in 
order  to  remain  faithful  to  my  religion,  at  the  time  of 
the  Colloquy  of  Poissy  (when  the  whole  Court  was  in- 
fected with  heresy),  to  the  arbitrary  persuasions  of  several 
lords  and  ladies  of  the  Court,  and  even  to  those  of  my 
brother  of  Anjou,  since  King  of  France,  whose  inexperience 
had  prevented  him  from  escaping  the  influence  of  that 
wretched  Huguenoterie,  and  who  never  ceased  conjuring 
me  to  change  my  religion,  very  often  throwing  my  Book 
of  Hours  into  the  fire  and  giving  me,  in  its  stead, 
Huguenot  songs  and  prayers,  which  I  used  to  hand  over 
at  once  to  Madame  de  Curton,  my  gouvernante,  whom 
God  had  done  me  the  favour  to  keep  Catholic,  and  who 
would  often  take  me  to  M.  Cardinal  de  Tournon,  who 
advised  and  strengthened  me  in  the  suffering  of  all  things 
for  the  maintenance  of  my  religion,  and  gave  me  prayer- 
books  and  rosaries,  in  the  place  of  those  which  had  been 
burnt  by  my  brother  of  Anjou.  But  when  others  of  his 
intimate  friends  who  were  bent  upon  my  destruction  dis- 
covered that  these  were  once  more  in  my  possession,  they 
reviled  me  angrily,  saying  that  it  was  youth  and  stupidity 
which  caused  me  to  act  thus ;  that  it  was  easy  to  see  that 
I  was  possessed  of  no  understanding  ;  that  all  intelligent 
people,  whatever  their  age  or  sex,  hearing  the  doctrine  of 
Charity  preached,  had  freed  themselves  from  the  trammels 
of  bigotry,  but  that  I  should  become  as  foolish  as  my 
gouvernante.  And  my  brother  of  Anjou,  adding  threats 

9 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

thereunto,  declared  that  the  Queen  my  mother  would 
have  me  whipped.  He  said  this,  however,  upon  his  own 
responsibility,  for  the  Queen  my  mother  was  ignorant  of 
the  error  into  which  he  had  fallen,  and  when  she  became 
aware  of  it,  she  reproved  him  and  his  tutors  as  well,  and, 
after  having  had  them  instructed,  induced  them  to  return 
to  the  true,  holy,  and  ancient  faith  of  our  fathers,  from 
which  she  had  never  departed.  I  used  to  say  in  answer 
to  these  threats,  melting  to  tears — as  seven  or  eight,  the 
age  I  was  then,  is  a  somewhat  sensitive  period — that 
they  might  have  me  whipped  or  killed  if  they  liked,  but 
that  I  would  endure  anything  that  could  be  done  to  me 
rather  than  bring  about  my  own  damnation."  1 

Marguerite,  indeed,  remained  down  to  the  day  of  her 
death  a  most  devout  Catholic,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  sense 
of  being  a  rigid  observer  of  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of 
her  Church,  a  practice  which  was  not  in  those  days,  and, 
indeed,  down  to  a  very  much  later  period,  held  to  be  in- 
compatible with  the  most  irregular  of  lives. 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  Court  for  the  new  teaching  was 
not  of  long  duration,  for  Protestantism,  partly  under  the 
stress  of  the  persecution  to  which  it  was  subjected  at  the 
hands  of  the  Guises  and  their  partisans,  and  partly  through 
the  influence  of  the  ambitious  nobles  who  exploited  it  for 
their  own  selfish  purposes,  was  rapidly  passing  from  a 
purely  religious  movement  into  a  political  one  of  a  most 
formidable  kind.  In  March  1562,  the  massacre  of  Vassy 
furnished  the  occasion  for  which  both  parties  had  been 
waiting,  and  a  few  weeks  later  the  first  civil  war  broke 
out. 

At  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  Catherine  de' 
Medici  separated  her  children  ;  the  young  King  and  her 
1  Memoirei  tt  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  (edit.  Guessard,  1842.) 

10 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

favourite  son,  Henri  d'Anjou,  she  kept  with  her  ;  while 
Marguerite  and  the  little  Due  d'Alen^on  were  sent  to  the 
Chateau  of  Amboise,  so  charmingly  situated  on  the  banks 
of  the  Loire.  Three  years  earlier,  Amboise  had  been 
the  scene  of  tragic  events  ;  but  now  it  was  peaceful,  and 
had  been  chosen  by  the  Queen-Mother  as  being  sufficiently 
far  removed  from  the  theatre  of  war  to  prove  a  safe 
retreat  for  her  younger  children.  Here  Marguerite  and 
her  brother  were  able  to  continue  their  studies,  undisturbed 
by  the  turmoil  in  which  the  greater  part  of  the  country 
was  plunged  ;  the  former  under  the  direction  of  Madame 
de  Curton  and  the  learned  and  pious  Henri  Le  Maignan, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Digne,  the  latter  under  that  of  his 
gouverneur,  Du  Plessis. 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  belonging  to  a  family  in  which 
love  for  the  arts  was  hereditary,  exercised  the  most  careful 
supervision  over  the  education  of  her  children  and  spared 
no  pains  to  secure  for  them  the  services  of  the  most 
capable  teachers  of  the  day.  The  classics,  grammar, 
history,  the  Holy  Scriptures — from  the  study  of  which, 
it  must  be  confessed,  they  would  appear  to  have  de- 
rived singularly  little  benefit — all  were  carefully  taught 
them.  The  savant  Amyot,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  one  of  the 
most  profound  scholars  of  his  time,  whose  translation 
of  Plutarch  enjoyed  so  great  a  vogue,  was  tutor  to 
Charles  IX.  and  Henri  d'Anjou,  and  gave  lessons  also  to 
Catherine's  younger  children.  "  It  is  not  his  least  glory," 
remarks  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  "  to  have  cultivated  the  mind 
of  the  young  Princess  of  Valois  and  to  have  prepared,  by 
his  learned  instruction,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  writers 
of  this  remarkable  century.  The  perusal  of  Marguerite's 
Memoires  reveals  the  impression  which  Plutarch  made 
upon  her  ;  one  finds  there  many  passages  reminiscent  of 

ii 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

this  work,  which  had  on  its  appearance  an  incomparable 
success,  confirmed  by  posterity."1 

Nor  were  other  studies  neglected ;  music,  singing, 
painting,  and  dancing — in  which  accomplishment  the  last 
Valois  seemed  to  have  particularly  excelled — were  taught 
them  by  the  best  masters  that  could  be  procured. 
Marguerite  received  instruction  in  music  and  singing 
from  the  celebrated  singer,  Etienne  Leroy,  and  Paul  de 
Rege,  who  had  been  the  dancing-master  of  Marie  Stuart, 
gave  her  lessons  in  the  choregraphic  art. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  first  civil  war,  in  the  spring  of 
1563,  Catherine,  freed  for  a  time  from  her  dread  of  the 
Guises,  by  the  assassination  of  their  chief,2  decided  that 
her  best  chance  of  maintaining  her  influence,  lay  in  placing 
her  eldest  son  at  the  head  of  the  Catholic  party,  and 
directing  her  efforts  to  the  gradual  ruin,  by  peaceful 
means,  of  the  Protestants,  now  become  by  far  the  most 
formidable  opponents  of  the  royal  authority.  The  King 
had  been  declared  of  age,  but  the  effective  authority 
remained  in  the  hands  of  his  mother,  who  now  persuaded 
him  to  undertake  a  grand  progress  through  the  various 
provinces  of  his  realm,  and  sent  for  Marguerite,  who  was 
not  yet  twelve  years  old,  to  accompany  her.  Catherine 
hoped  much  from  this  progress,  which  was  intended  to 
make  the  young  sovereign  acquainted  with  the  position  of 
affairs  in  the  provinces,  and  to  impose  by  his  presence  respect 
for  the  edicts  of  toleration  accorded  the  Huguenots,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  weakening  their  influence  and  rendering 
it  difficult  for  them  to  recommence  hostilities. 

1  Comte  L6o  de  Saint-Poncy,  {Marguerite  de  Va/ois,  Reine  de  France 
et  de  Navarre,  i.  17. 

2  Frar^ois  de  Lorraine,  Due  de  Guise,  was  assassinated  by  Poltrot  de 

while  besieging  Orleans,  on  February  18,  1563. 

12 


CHAPTER   II 

The  "  Grand  Voyage" — The  interview  ofBayonne — Fete  on  the 
Isle  of  Aiguemeau — Huguenot  excesses  in  Beam — Marguerite 
returns  to  Paris — Beginning  of  the  second  civil  war — Attempts 
of  the  Huguenots  to  seize  the  King  at  Monceaux — Flight  of 
the  court  to  Paris — Battle  of  Saint-Denis — The  Due  d'Anjou 
proposes  to  Marguerite  a  political  r61e — Marguerite  is  ad- 
mitted to  her  mother's  confidence — Arrival  of  the  Court  at 
Saint- Jean-d'Angely — Du  Guast — Anjou  accuses  Marguerite 
of  encouraging  the  attentions  of  the  Due  de  Guise — Catherine 
de'  Medici  withdraws  her  confidence  from  her  daughter — 
Marguerite's  reason  for  denying  her  passion  for  Guise  in  her 
Memoires. 

THE  Court  quitted  Paris  on  Monday,  January  24,  1564, 
and  proceeded  through  Champagne  and  Lorraine  to  Bar- 
le-Duc,  where  magnificent  fe'tes  were  held  in  honour  of 
the  baptism  of  Marguerite's  nephew,  the  Prince  of 
Lorraine,  son  of  her  second  sister  Claude  and  Duke 
Charles  II.  Burgundy  and  Dauphin6  were  next  visited, 
«jnd  at  the  Chateau  of  Roussillon,  Charles  IX.  signed  the 
celebrated  Ordinance  of  that  name,  whereby  it  was  enacted 
that,  for  all  official  purposes,  the  year  should  henceforth 
begin  on  January  I,  instead  of,  as  heretofore,  on  Easter 
Sunday,  or,  to  be  more  exact,  on  Holy  Saturday  after 
vespers.  The  winter  of  1564-1565  was  passed  at  Lyons, 
where  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Savoy  visited  the  Court 
and  were  splendidly  entertained.  Then,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  spring,  the  progress  was  resumed,  and  the  Court 

13 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

proceeded  to  Bayonne,  which  was  the  limit  of  the  journey. 
Here  an  interesting  family  meeting  took  place,  the  young 
Queen  of  Spain,  Catherine's  eldest  daughter,  coming  from 
Madrid  to  greet  her  relatives,  accompanied  by  the  ill- 
fated  Don  Carlos — Philip  II. 's  son  by  his  first  wife — and 
the  famous — or  infamous — Duke  of  Alva,  who  was 
charged  to  invest  the  King  of  France  with  the  Order  of 
the  Golden  Fleece. 

Alva's  mission  masked  one  of  far  greater  importance, 
nothing  less  than  to  endeavour  to  prevail  upon  Charles 
and  Catherine  to  enter  into  a  treaty  with  Philip  for  the 
extirpation  of  the  Protestants  both  in  France  and  the 
Netherlands ;  and  some  Protestant  historians  go  so  far  as 
to  assert  that  it  was  here  that  the  project  of  the  Massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew  was  first  determined  on.  But 
contemporary  documents,  such  as  Alva's  own  letters  and 
the  papers  of  Cardinal  de  Granvelle,  clearly  prove  that 
the  proposals  of  the  terrible  general  were  very  coldly 
received  by  Catherine,  and  that  he  was  given  nothing  but 
the  vaguest  assurances  ;  while  it  should  be  remembered 
that  Alva,  in  marked  contrast  to  his  master,  expressed 
the  strongest  disapprobation  of  the  horrors  of  the  St. 
Bartholomew,  not,  of  course,  on  humanitarian,  but  on 
political  grounds,  declaring  it  to  be  "  a  mad,  fatuous,  and 
badly-conceived  act." 

If  Alva  failed  in  his  mission,  he  had  no  reason  to  be 
dissatisfied  with  the  reception  which  he  and  his  royal 
mistress  received  at  Bayonne.  With  Catherine  de' 
Medici,  it  was  a  point  of  honour  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of 
foreigners  with  the  magnificence  of  the  Court  of  France, 
and  the  French  nobles  ably  seconded  her  efforts. 
Marguerite,  in  her  Memoires,  describes  at  length  the 
superb  fete  and  ballet,  which  Charles  IX.  and  the  Queen- 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Mother  gave  on  St.  John's  Eve,  on  the  Isle  of  Aiguemeau, 
in  the  Adour. 

"  The  shape  of  a  room,"  she  writes,  "  was  designed  in 
the  middle  of  an  island,  as  though  by  Nature,  in  a  large 
oval  meadow,  enclosed  by  stately  trees,  around  which  the 
Queen  my  mother  had  arranged  niches,  in  each  of  which 
was  placed  a  circular  table  for  twelve  persons,  whilst  that 
of  their  Majesties  was  raised  at  the  end  of  the  enclosure 
upon  a  dais,  approached  by  four  grass  steps.  All  these 
tables  were  served  by  different  groups  of  shepherdesses 
dressed  in  cloth-of-gold  and  satin,  according  to  the 
various  costumes  of  all  the  provinces  of  France.  Upon 
our  disembarking  from  the  magnificent  boats  (in  which, 
all  the  way  from  Bayonne  to  the  island,  we  were  ac- 
companied by  several  sea-gods,  who  sang  and  recited 
verses  to  their  Majesties),  these  shepherdesses  were 
discovered,  each  group  apart,  in  meadows  upon  either 
side  of  a  grass  valley,  which  led  to  the  aforesaid  enclosure, 
dancing  after  the  manner  of  their  provinces  —  the 
Poitevines  with  the  bagpipes,  the  Proven^ales  with 
shawms  and  cymbals,  the  Bourguignones  and  Cham- 
penoises  with  small  hautboys,  round  fiddles,  and  rustic 
tambourines,  the  Bretonnes  dancing  the  passe-pieds  and  the 
branles-gaiS)  and  so  on  in  respect  of  all  the  other 
provinces.  After  the  performances  of  these  shepherdesses 
and  the  feast  itself  were  concluded,  a  band  of  musicians, 
accompanied  by  a  troupe  of  satyrs,  entered  that  large 
luminous  grotto,  which  was  even  more  brilliantly 
illuminated  by  the  radiant  beauty  and  the  precious  stones 
of  a  bevy  of  nymphs,  who  made  their  entry  from  above, 
than  by  the  artificial  light.  These  nymphs  and  satyrs 
descended  and  danced  that  beautiful  ballet,  whereof 
Fortune  waxed  envious  and  unable  to  endure  its  glories, 

'5 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

brought  about  such  an  extraordinary  storm  of  wind  and 
rain  that  the  confusion  of  the  retreat  which  took  place, 
in  the  dark,  by  boat,  furnished  material  for  more 
diverting  stories  than  even  the  f£te  had  afforded. 

After  a  brilliant  series  of  entertainments  :  tournaments, 
fetes,  illuminations,  and  banquets,  the  two  Courts 
separated,  and  Elisabeth  reluctantly  bade  farewell  to  her 
family,  which  she  was  never  to  see  again  1  and  set  out  with 
Alva  and  Don  Carlos  on  her  return  journey  ;  while  the 
French  Court  proceeded  to  NeYac,  the  favourite  residence 
of  Jeanne  d'Albret,  Queen  of  Navarre.  Their  journey 
thither  lay,  in  great  part,  through  the  dominions  of  that 
estimable  but  bigoted  princess,  and  the  more  devout 
Catholics  of  the  party  were  horror-struck  by  the  signs  of 
the  devastation  recently  committed  by  the  Huguenots,  in 
Tevenge  for  the  cruelties  perpetrated  on  their  co-religionists 
in  other  parts  of  France.  For  Jeanne  had  proscribed 
the  Catholic  religion  and  persecuted  its  adherents,  and 
luined  monasteries,  desecrated  churches,  broken  crosses, 
and  mutilated  images  were  to  be  seen  on  every  side. 

On  their  arrival  at  Nerac,  Charles  IX.  and  Catherine 

1  Elisabeth  de  Valois  died  on  October  3,  1568.  It  was  firmly  be- 
lieved by  many  of  her  contemporaries  that  his  Catholic  Majesty  had 
caused  his  young  wife  to  be  poisoned  ;  and,  according  to  Sully,  it  was  to 
avenge  this  supposed  crime  that  Charles  IX.  desired  to  wrest  from  Spain 
Flanders  and  Artois.  "  The  King  (Charles  IX.),"  he  writes,  "  had 
several  causes  of  complaint  against  the  King  of  Spain,  and,  among  others, 
the  death,  which  he  was  well  aware  that  he  had  procured,  of  his  wife, 
Elisabeth  de  France,  owing  to  his  jealousy  of  the  good  understanding 
that  she  had  with  Prince  Charles  (Don  Carlos),  his  eldest  son,  on  account 
of  which  he  was  resolved  to  make  war  upon  him."  The  latest  investiga- 
tions of  historical  criticism,  however,  exonerate  the  much-abused  monarch 
from  the  crime  imputed  to  him,  and  everything  tends  to  the  belief  that 
Elisabeth  died  a  natural  death. 

16 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

addressed  a  vigorous  remonstrance  to  the  Queen,  and 
ordered  the  immediate  re-establishment  of  the  Old 
Religion.  Jeanne  was  compelled  to  obey  ;  but  the  tolera- 
tion thus  extorted  from  her  only  lasted  until  the  renewal  of 
the  civil  war,  when  the  persecution  of  the  luckless  Catholics 
of  Beam  and  Navarre  was  resumed  with  more  severity 
than  before. 

The  " grand  voyage"  as  it  is  termed,  concluded  with  a 
visit  to  the  central  provinces,  and  after  having  assisted,  in 
company  with  their  Majesties,  at  the  celebrated  Assembly 
of  Moulins,  where  Coligny  was  declared  guiltless  of  all 
responsibility  for  the  assassination  of  the  Due  de  Guise, 
Marguerite  returned  with  the  Court  to  Paris,  which  was 
reached  on  May  i,  1566. 

In  September  of  the  following  year,  civil  war  broke 
out  again.  Although,  as  we  have  seen,  Catherine  had 
rejected  the  drastic  proposals  of  Alva,  with  regard  to  the 
Protestants,  the  latter  had  drawn  the  worst  inferences 
from  the  Bayonne  interview ;  and  the  refusal  of  the 
Government  to  disband  a  force  of  6000  Swiss  mercenaries, 
which  had  been  raised  to  protect  the  Eastern  frontier 
from  any  aggression  on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  troops 
marching  from  Italy  to  the  Netherlands,  alarmed  and 
exasperated  them  to  the  last  degree.  Their  chiefs  met  in 
council  at  Valery  and  Chatillon,  and,  though  Coligny 
pleaded  eloquently  for  peace,  he  was  overruled,  and  it  was 
resolved  to  seize  the  person  of  the  King,  to  capture 
some  of  the  stronger  towns,  and  to  fall  upon  and 
annihilate  the  Swiss.  Rozoy,  in  Brie,  was  selected  as  the 
rendezvous. 

The  first  move  in  this  desperate  game  was  within  an 
ace  of  being  successful.  The  Court  was  at  the  Chateau  of 

17  B 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Monceaux,  in  Brie,  which  belonged  to  Catherine,  occupied 
with  f£tes  and  hunting-parties,  when  the  Sieur  de 
Castelnau,  whom  Charles  IX.  had  despatched  on  a 
political  mission  to  Brussels,  arrived  with  the  news  that 
the  Huguenots  were  everywhere  preparing  to  rise  in 
arms.  The  King  was  at  first  incredulous,  and  1'Hopital 
declared  that  "  it  was  a  capital  offence  to  give  a  false 
warning  to  a  prince,  which  might  cause  him  to  distrust  his 
subjects." l  However,  a  few  days  later,  word  was  brought 
that  armed  men  were  patrolling  all  the  roads  in  the 
neighbourhood,  and  that  a  body  of  cavalry  was  encamped 
in  a  wood  in  which  his  Majesty  had  announced  his  inten- 
tion of  hunting  on  the  following  morning.  In  great 
alarm,  Charles  despatched  messengers  to  Chateau-Thierry 
to  summon  the  Swiss,  who  were  stationed  there,  to  his 
succour ;  and  on  September  22,  the  Court  quitted 
Monceaux  and  threw  itself  into  the  town  of  Meaux. 
The  Swiss  arrived  at  midnight  on  the  24th,  and,  on  the 
advice  of  their  commander  Pfeiffer,  who  pledged  himself, 
"to  make  a  lane  for  their  Majesties  through  the  army  of 
their  enemies,"  it  was  resolved  to  retire  on  Paris. 
Accordingly,  at  daybreak  on  the  28th,  they  left  Meaux, 
the  Swiss  marching  in  the  form  of  a  square,  with  the  Royal 
Family  in  their  midst,  while  the  gentlemen  of  the  Court 
and  their  servants  formed  the  advance-  and  rear-guards 
of  the  cortege.  At  Lagny,  they  were  met  by  the  Huguenot 
cavalry  under  Cond6  and  Coligny  ;  but  the  latter  were 
not  as  yet  in  sufficient  force  to  risk  an  engagement,2  and 
recoiled  before  the  resolute  attitude  of  the  Swiss,  who, 
"  lowering  their  pikes,  ran  at  them  like  mad  dogs,  at  full 

1  {Memoires  de  Castelnau,  vi.  I. 

2  Not  more  than  five  or  six  hundred  horse,  according  to  Protestant 
writers. 

18 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

speed."  And  so,  guarded  by  foreign  mercenaries  from 
the  wrath  of  his  rebellious  subjects,  Charles  IX.  reached 
his  capital,  burning  with  shame  and  indignation,  at  the 
extremity  to  which  he  had  been  reduced. 

The  Huguenots  followed  and,  having  been  reinforced, 
encamped  at  Saint-Denis  and  proceeded  to  blockade 
Paris,  although  their  army  does  not  seem  to  have 
exceeded  6000  men,  and  they  were  without  artillery  ; 
while  the  old  Constable  de  Montmorency,  with  a  vastly 
superior  force,  lay  within  the  city.  The  Constable,  how- 
ever, had  grown  cautious  with  age  and  was  disinclined  to 
take  the  offensive,  and  it  was  not  until  the  necessity  of 
opposing  the  advance  of  a  Spanish  corps  from  the  Nether- 
lands had  compelled  the  Huguenots  to  despatch  a  consider- 
able portion  of  their  slender  forces,  under  Coligny's 
brother,  Andelot,  and  Montgommery,  in  the  direction  of 
Poissy,  that  he  ventured  to  give  battle.  In  the  result, 
the  Protestants,  who  were  outnumbered  by  as  many  as 
five  to  one,  were  compelled  to  retreat,  though  all  the 
honours  of  the  day  were  unquestionably  theirs,  and  the 
Constable  himself  was  amongst  the  slain.  Thus  com- 
menced the  second  stage  of  this  sanguinary  struggle, 
which,  save  for  the  brief  respite  ensured  by  the  Peace  of 
Longjumeau,  was  to  ravage  France  for  four  years. 


In  the  midst  of  these  stirring  events,  history  make? 
little  mention  of  Marguerite  ;  but  the  princess  herself 
relates  a  curious  episode,  which  is  a  striking  testimony  to 
the  fear  and  respect  in  which  Catherine  de'  Medici  was 
held  by  her  children  and  to  the  intriguing  character  of 
the  future  Henri  III. 

After  the  battle  of  Jarnac,  in  which  a  felon-shot  had 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

deprived  the  Huguenots  of  their  gallant  leader  Cond^,1 
the  Court  proceeded  to  Plessis-les-Tours  to  join  the 
victorious  Anjou.2  One  day,  while  Marguerite  was 
walking  with  her  mother  and  brothers  in  the  beautiful 
park  which  surrounded  the  ancient  chateau,  Henri  drew 
her  down  a  quiet  alley  and  addressed  her  as  follows  : 

"  Sister,  early  association  no  less  than  close  kinship, 
constrains  us  to  love  one  another,  and  you  must  have 
been  well  aware  that  I,  of  all  of  your  brothers,  have  ever 
been  the  most  solicitous  for  your  welfare,  while  I  have 
remarked  that  you  too  were  disposed  to  return  me  a  like 
affection.  Until  now,  we  have  been  naturally  inclined 
to  this,  without  such  intimacy  having  been  productive  of 
any  advantage  to  us,  except  the  mere  pleasure  we  have 
derived  from  conversing  together.  During  our  childhood, 
this  was  well  enough  ;  but  the  time  has  gone  by  for 
behaving  like  children.  You  see  the  great  and  important 
posts  to  which  God  has  called  me  and  for  which  I  have 
been  trained  by  the  Queen  our  good  mother.  You  may 
rest  assured  that,  since  you  are  the  one  thing  in  the  world 
that  I  most  love  and  cherish,  I  shall  never  possess  either 
honours  or  worldly  goods  in  which  you  will  not 
participate." 

After  this  insinuating  preamble,  Anjou  frankly  re- 
quested his  sister's  aid.  "  Your  intelligence  and  judg- 

1  Conde  was  shot,  after  he  had  surrendered  himself  a  prisoner,  by  the 
Baron  de   Montesquiou,  a  creature  of  Anjou,  very  probably  by  that 
prince's  orders. 

2  On  the  death  of  the  old  Constable  de  Montmorency,  in  the  Battle 
of  Saint-Denis,  Catherine  had  declined  to  fill  the  vacant  office,  but  had 
persuaded   Charles   IX.   to  give  the   command   of  the  royal  forces  to 
Henri  d'Anjou,  with  the  title  of  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Kingdom  ; 
Marshal  de  Tavannes  being  chosen  to  direct  the  operations  of  the 
youthful  commander. 

20 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

ment,"  said  he,  "  may  be  of  service  to  me  in  influencing 
the  Queen  our  mother  to  retain  me  in  my  present  fortune. 
Now,  my  chief  support  consists  in  remaining  in  her  good 
graces.  I  dread  lest  absence  may  injure  me,  and  yet  the 
war  and  my  appointments  oblige  me  to  be  almost  always 
at  a  distance.  Meanwhile,  the  King  my  brother  is  con- 
tinually at  her  side,  flattering  her  and  humouring  her  in 
everything.  I  fear  that,  in  the  end,  this  will  be  prejudicial 
to  me,  and  that  the  King  my  brother,  growing  up  and 
being  brave,  as  he  is,  may  not  always  continue  to  amuse 
himself  with  hunting,  but  may  become  ambitious  and 
substitute  the  chase  of  men  for  that  of  beasts  and  deprive 
me  of  the  post  of  King's  lieutenant  which  he  bestowed 
upon  me,  in  order  that  he  may  join  the  forces  himself. 
This  would  be  so  great  an  annoyance  and  humiliation  to 
me  that  I  should  prefer  a  painful  death  rather  than  endure 
such  a  fall.  In  considering  the  means  of  dispelling  this 
apprehension,  I  find  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  have 
some  very  faithful  persons  devoted  to  my  interests,  to 
uphold  my  influence  with  the  Queen  my  mother.  I 
know  none  so  suitable  as  you,  whom  I  look  upon  as  my 
second  self.  You  possess  all  the  requisite  qualifications  : 
wit,  understanding,  and  fidelity.  If  you  will  only  add 
obedience  thereunto,  by  being  always  present  in  her  cabinet, 
at  her  lever  and  at  her  coucher,  in  short,  continually, 
this,  combined  with  what  I  shall  tell  her  of  your  capacity, 
will  constrain  her  to  confide  in  you  ;  and  I  shall  beg  her 
no  longer  to  treat  you  as  a  child,  but  to  make  use  of  you, 
in  my  absence,  as  of  myself.  This,  I  am  assured,  she  will 
do.  Rid  yourself  of  your  timidity.  Talk  to  her  freely, 
as  you  do  to  me,  and,  believe  me,  she  will  listen  graciously. 
It  will  be  an  honour  and  a  happiness  to  you  to  be  loved  by 
her.  You  will  greatly  advantage  both  yourself  and  me, 

tt 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

and    1    shall    be    beholden    to    you,    after    God,   for  the 
maintenance  of  my  good  fortune." 

Marguerite  tells  us  that  these  overtures  occasioned  her 
the  most  profound  astonishment.  She,  a  young  girl  of 
sixteen,  who  had  had  not  a  thought  beyond  dancing 
and  hunting,  was  invited  to  become  a  political  woman  ! 
Moreover,  she  had  been  brought  up  to  regard  her  mother 
with  such  awe  that  not  only  did  she  never  dare  to  address 
her,  but  trembled  when  her  Majesty  so  much  as  glanced 
in  her  direction,  for  fear  that  she  might  have  done  some- 
thing to  offend  her ;  and,  consequently,  she  felt  inclined 
to  answer  her  brother  as  Moses  replied  to  God,  on 
beholding  the  vision  of  the  burning  bush  :  "  Who  am 
I  ?  Send,  I  pray  Thee,  by  the  hand  of  him  whom  Thou 
oughtest  to  send."  However,  when  she  had  recovered 
from  the  first  surprise,  she  began  to  feel  highly  gratified 
by  her  brother's  words,  and  "  it  seemed  to  her  that  she 
was  transformed  and  had  become  something  greater  than 
her  former  self."  She,  accordingly,  hastened  to  assure  him 
that  ff  no  one  on  earth  loved  and  respected  him  as  she 
did,"  and  that,  when  with  the  Queen,  she  would  act 
entirely  in  his  interests. 

A  day  or  two  afterwards,  Catherine  summoned 
Marguerite  to  her  cabinet,  and  then  told  her  that  she 
had  been  informed  by  her  son  of  the  conversation  he  had 
had  with  his  sister,  and  that  it  was  her  intention  to  admit 
her  to  her  confidence  and  permit  her  to  speak  to  her 
freely. 

Marguerite's  life  now  underwent  a  great  change. 
Hitherto  her  time  had  been  fully  occupied  with  childish 
games  and  the  ordinary  amusements  of  the  Court ;  but, 
proud  of  being  admitted  to  her  mother's  confidence,  she 
now  affected  a  fine  scorn  for  all  these  frivolities,  "  as 

22 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

things  utterly  vain  and  unprofitable,"  and  began  to  devote 
all  her  attention  to  politics — the  tortuous  politics  of  that 
strange  epoch,  when  the  friend  of  to-day  might  become 
the  enemy  of  to-morrow,  and  a  man's  deadliest  foes  were 
often  those  who  were  loudest  in  their  professions  of 
devotion.  She  made  it  her  unvarying  rule,  she  tells  us, 
to  be  the  first  at  the  Queen's  lever  and  the  last  at  her 
coucher,  in  order  to  lose  not  a  moment  of  this  precious 
intimacy  ;  and  her  mother  sometimes  conversed  with  her 
for  two  or  three  hours  at  a  time,  though  whether  these 
lengthy  conferences  were  of  quite  so  important  a  nature 
as  the  princess  intends  us  to  believe,  we  are  inclined  to 
doubt.  Catherine  de'  Medici  was  never  over-fond  of 
confidantes,  least  of  all  of  young  ladies  of  sixteen. 

Matters  continued  on  this  footing  until  the  late  autumn 
of  1569,  when  the  Court  arrived  at  Saint-Jean-d'Angely, 
to  join  Anjou,  who  was  laying  siege  to  that  town.  Here 
a  mortification  as  bitter  as  it  was  unexpected  awaited  the 
princess,  which  she  attributes  to  the  evil  offices  of  a 
favourite  of  her  brother  named  Du  Guast,  who  had 
supplanted  her  in  the  confidence  of  the  duke. 

A  member  of  a  very  old  family  of  Dauphine,  Louis  de 
Beranger,  Seigneur  du  Guast  or  du  Gast — the  name  is 
variously  spelt — had  come  when  still  a  youth  to  the 
Court  of  the  Valois,  where  his  courage,  audacity,  and  wit 
quickly  brought  him  into  prominence.1  Having  decided 
that  the  patronage  of  one  of  the  Royal  Family  might 

1  A  portrait  of  Du  Guast  is  preserved  among  the  sixteenth-century 
drawings  in  the  Cabinet  des  Estampes,  "  which  shows  us  just  such  a 
man  as  we  should  expect  to  find,  with  a  convex  forehead,  a  red  beard, 
worn  short  and  cut  to  a  point,  and  a  thin,  disdainful  mouth.  The 
dominant  expression  of  this  countenance  is  audacity  tempered  by 
craft." — La  Ferriere,  Trots  amoureuses  du  X^le  iilcle  :  Marguerite  <U 
Valois. 

23 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

facilitate  his  advancement,  he  insinuated  himself  into  the 
good  graces  of  Anjou,  and  opens  the  list  of  that  long 
succession  of  favourites  who  exercised  so  deplorable  an 
influence  over  that  prince.  Determined  to  enjoy  an 
absolute  authority  over  his  master,  he  left  no  means 
untried  to  discredit  those  who  might  be  inclined  to  dis- 
pute it  with  him,  and  "  influenced  him  so  entirely  that 
he  saw  only  through  his  eyes  and  spoke  only  through 
his  lips."  "  This  bad  man,  born  to  do  evil,"  continues 
Marguerite,  "  had  at  once  fascinated  his  mind  and  filled 
it  with  a  thousand  tyrannical  maxims  :  *  That  one  ought 
only  to  love  and  trust  oneself;  that  one  should  involve 
no  one  else  in  one's  own  destiny,  not  even  a  brother  or  a 
sister ' ;  together  with  other  fine  Machiavellian  precepts, 
wherewith  having  become  imbued,  he  set  about  putting 
them  into  practice."  * 

The  princess,  who  had  come  to  Saint- Jean-d'Angely, 
in  confident  anticipation  of  being  received  by  her  brother, 
with  all  the  demonstrations  of  affection  and  gratitude, 
which  the  services  she  had  rendered,  or  flattered  herself 
that  she  had  rendered,  him  warranted,  was  speedily  dis- 
illusioned. "As  soon  as  we  had  arrived,"  she  writes, 
"  after  the  first  salutations,  my  mother  began  praising 
me  and  saying  how  loyally  I  had  stood  his  friend  with 
her.  He  answered  coldly  that  he  was  very  glad  that 
what  he  had  suggested  had  turned  out  so  well,  but  that 
prudence  did  not  always  permit  one  to  make  use  of  the 

1  In  contradiction  to  Marguerite  and  the  majority  of  contemporary 
chroniclers,  her  friend  Brant6me  describes  Du  Guast  as  a  man  of  some 
merit  and  asserts  that  when  Henri  d' Anjou  became  King,  he  exercised  a 
beneficial  influence  over  him.  "  I  have  seen  him,"  he  writes,  "  remon- 
strate with  the  King,  when  he  perceived  that  he  was  doing  anything  wrong 
or  when  he  heard  it  reported  of  him.  The  King  took  it  in  good  part, 
and  used  to  correct  himself." 

2* 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

same  expedients,  and  that  what  was  necessary  at  one 
time  might  be  dangerous  at  another.  She  asked  him 
his  reason  for  speaking  thus.  Upon  which,  seeing  that 
the  moment  had  come  for  the  invention  he  had  fabricated 
on  purpose  to  destroy  me,  he  replied  that  I  was  becoming 
beautiful  and  that  M.  de  Guise1  was  turning  his  thoughts 
upon  me,  and  that  his  uncles2  aspired  to  make  a  marriage 
between  us  ;  that  she  was  aware  of  the  ambition  of  that 
House  [the  House  of  Lorraine]  and  of  how  it  had  always 
embarrassed  ours ;  and  that,  for  this  reason,  it  would  be 
as  well  that  she  should  no  longer  talk  to  me  of  affairs, 
and  that  she  should  gradually  withdraw  herself  from  all 
intimacy  with  me.'* 

Marguerite  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  she  omitted  nothing 
to  convince  her  mother  of  her  innocence,  assuring  her 
that  she  had  never  heard  of  this  report,  and  that  if  the 
Due  de  Guise  had  had  any  such  intention,  she  would 
certainly  have  informed  the  Queen  of  it,  the  moment  he 
mentioned  the  subject  to  her.  But  her  protestations  were 
vain,  "  for  her  brother's  words  had  taken  such  possession  of 
the  Queen's  mind  that  there  was  no  room  in  it  for  either 
reason  or  truth  ;  "  and  from  that  moment  Catherine  ceased 
to  admit  her  daughter  to  her  confidence. 

The  Memoires  of  Marguerite  de  Valois  are  deserving 
of  all  that  the  greatest  critic  of  modern  times  has  said  in 
their  praise  ; 3  they  are  models  of  finesse,  of  skill,  and  of 
diction ;  but  they  are  the  work  of  a  daughter  of  Catherine 
de'  Medici,  and  it  would  perhaps  be  too  much  to  expect 
to  find  there  candour  as  well.  They  are,  indeed,  in 

1  Henri  de  Lorraine,  Due  de  Guise,  assassinated  at  Blois,  Decem- 
ber 23,  1588. 

2  The  Cardinals  de  Lorraine  and  de  Guise,  and  the  Due  d'Auma'le. 
8  See  the  study  by  Sainte-Beuve,  Cauteries  du  Lundi.  vi.  IQO  et  seq. 

2; 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

great  part,  an  apology  for  the  life  of  the  writer,  who 
poses  throughout  as  an  injured  woman,  displays  an  in- 
finite art  in  explaining  away  the  scandals  imputed  to  her, 
and  in  guarding  against  any  statement  calculated  to 
injure  her  with  those  whom  she  desired  to  conciliate. 
Such  being  her  object,  it  is  not  surprising  that  she 
should  refuse  to  betray  any  predilection  for  the  Due  de 
Guise,1  and  should  be  careful  to  conceal  the  nature  of 
the  relation  between  them,  since  the  Memoires  were 
written  while  she  was  a  prisoner  at  the  Chateau  of 
Usson,  and  the  Guises  had  been  the  most  bitter  enemies 
of  her  husband  Henri  IV.  and  his  advisers,  in  whose 
good  graces  she  was  above  all  things  anxious  to  rein- 
state herself.  But  the  student  of  sixteenth-century 
history  will  peruse  her  protestations  with  a  smile  of  in- 
credulity, for  the  love  of  Marguerite  de  Valois  for 
Henri  de  Lorraine,  and  even  a  project  of  marriage  be- 
tween them,  so  far  from  being  inventions  of  Du 
Guast  and  Henri  d'Anjou,  "fabricated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  destroying  her,"  are  notorious  facts,  established 

1  So  anxious  indeed  is  Marguerite  to  induce  her  readers  to  believe 
that  the  suspicions  of  her  brother  were  entirely  unfounded  that,  almost 
on  the  first  page  of  her  Memoires,  she  relates  that,  a  few  days  before  the 
fatal  accident  to  Henri  II.,  she  was  sitting  on  her  father's  knee,  watching 
the  Due  de  Guise  (then  Prince  de  Joinville)  and  the  little  Marquis  de 
Beaupr6au,  only  son  of  the  Prince  de  la  Roche-sur-Yon,  playing  to- 
gether, when  the  King  laughingly  asked  her  which  of  the  two  boys  she 
would  like  best  for  a  sweetheart.  "  I  replied,"  she  continues,  "that  I 
should  prefer  the  marquis."  "  Why,"  said  he,  "  he  is  not  so  handsome  " 
(for  the  Prince  de  Joinville  was  light-haired  and  fair,  while  the  Marquis 
de  Beauprdau  had  a  brown  complexion  and  dark  hair)  ?  "  I  replied  that 
it  was  because  he  was  the  bettei  bay,  whereas  the  other  was  never  satis- 
fied unless  he  was  doing  harm  to  somebody  every  day,  and  that  he 
always  wanted  to  be  master — a  true  prophecy  of  what  we  have  since 
seen  fulfilled." 

26 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

not  only  by  the  testimony  of  the  pamphleteers,  but  by 
writers  the  most  worthy  of  belief  and  the  least  sus- 
pected of  partiality  :  President  de  Thou,  Mathieu, 
Davila  and  Mezeray,  and  also  by  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  of  the  time. 


CHAPTER   III 

Beauty,  elegance,  and  intelligence  of  Marguerite — Early  career 
and  character  of  Guise — Marguerite's  illness  at  Saint-Jean- 
d' Angely — Perfidious  conduct  of  Anjou — His  hatred  of  Guise 
— Nature  of  Marguerite's  relations  with  the  duke  considered 
— Their  intimacy  the  chief  topic  of  conversation  at  Court — 
Interview  between  Catherine  de'  Medici  and  the  Cardinal 
de  Lorraine — An  intercepted  letter — Charles  IX.  orders 
Henri  d'Angoule'me  to  assassinate  Guise — Intervention  of 
Marguerite — And  of  the  Duchess  of  Lorraine — Angry 
scene  between  Charles  IX.  and  Guise — The  duke  renounces 
his  pretensions  to  Marguerite's  hand,  and  marries  the 
Princess  de  Porcien — Anjou's  threat — Consequences  of  this 
affair. 

AND,  indeed,  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  find  in  all 
France  a  better-matched  pair  of  lovers.  Marguerite, 
then  in  her  seventeenth  year,  was,  if  Brantdme  and  the 
other  historians  and  poets  who  have  described  her  charms 
are  to  be  credited,  exquisitely  beautiful.  She  had  "  a 
lovely  fair  face  that  resembled  the  heavens  in  their 
sweetest  and  calmest  serenity,  so  nobly  formed  as  to 
cause  one  to  declare  that  Mother  Nature,  that  very 
perfect  workwoman,  had  put  all  her  rarest  and  subtlest 
into  the  fashioning  of  it "  ;  a  complexion  of  dazzling  fair- 
ness, beautiful  blue  eyes  shaded  by  long  lashes,  which 
shone  with  an  unconscious  desire  to  please  and  that  native 
coquetry  which  rendered  her  later  so  redoubtable,  and  a 
superb  iigure,  "  of  a  port  and  majesty  more  like  to  a 

2* 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

goddess  of  heaven  than  a  princess  of  earth."  Her  hair, 
which  was  very  abundant,  was  black,  but  as  golden 
tresses  were  considered  to  harmonise  best  with  her 
complexion,  she  often  concealed  it  beneath  a  coiffure  of 
pale-coloured  curls.  "  Nevertheless,"  writes  the  enthu- 
siastic Brantome,  "  I  have  seen  this  magnificent  princess 
wear  her  own  hair  without  any  additional  contrivance  in 
the  shape  of  a  wig  ;  and,  in  spite  of  its  being  black,  like 
that  of  her  father,  King  Henri,  she  knew  so  well  how  to 
curl,  frizzle,  and  arrange  it,  in  imitation  of  her  sister, 
the  Queen  of  Spain  (who  always  wore  her  own,  which  was 
black  like  a  Spaniard's),  that  such  head-dress  became  her  as 
well,  or  better,  than  any  other  she  could  invent."1  A 
beautiful  girl  indeed !  But  "  it  was  the  beauty  sensual 
and  appetising,  which  attracts  and  retains  men ;  the  beauty 
made  '  to  damn  us,'  as  Don  Juan  of  Austria  will  exclaim 
later,  on  beholding  her  at  the  Louvre."  2 

Unfortunately,  Marguerite  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  contented  with  the  charms  which  a  bountiful  Nature 
had  bestowed  upon  her,  and  not  only  did  she  prefer  to 
conceal  her  own  hair  beneath  borrowed  tresses,  but  was 
wont  to  appear  with  her  lovely  face,  which  had  so  little 
need  of  artificial  aid,  "  all  bedaubed  and  painted."  The 
washes  and  cosmetics  which  she  so  freely  employed,  in 
order  to  preserve  the  freshness  of  her  complexion,  had 
the  very  opposite  effect,  and  produced  rashes  and  pimples, 
which  must  have  occasioned  her  great  mortification. 

Besides   being  the   acknowledged   Queen   of  Beauty, 

1  Brantome,  Dames  illustres.  Towards  the  end  of  her  life,  Marguerite 
had  no  dark  hair  left  and  went  to  great  expense  in  fair  wigs.  For  this 
purpose,  she  kept  several  "  tall,  fair-haired  footmen,  who  were  shaved 
from  time  to  time." 

Ferriere,    Trots  Amoureuset   du    XVI'    sihle :    ^Marguerite   de 
Valois. 

»9 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Marguerite  was  the  Queen  of  Fashion  as  well ;  and  it 
was  to  the  example  set  by  her,  so  Brantome  assures  us, 
that  the  ladies  of  the  French  Court  were  indebted  for  the 
fact  that  they  had  become  '*  great  ladies,  instead  of  simple 
mesdames,  and  so  a  hundredfold  more  charming  and 
desirable.'' 

"  I  remember  (for  I  was  present),"  he  writes,  "  that 
when  the  Queen-Mother  took  the  Queen  her  daughter  to 
her  husband,  the  King  of  Navarre,  she  passed  through 
Cognac  and  abode  there  some  days.  While  they  were 
there,  came  divers  great  and  honourable  ladies  of  the 
neighbourhood  to  see  them  and  do  them  reverence,  who 
were  all  amazed  at  the  beauty  of  the  princess  and  could 
not  praise  her  enough  to  her  mother,  she  being  lost  in 
joy.  Whereupon,  she  prayed  her  daughter  to  array 
herself  most  sumptuously  in  the  fine  and  superb  apparel 
that  she  wore  at  Court  for  great  and  magnificent  pomps 
and  festivities,  in  order  to  give  pleasure  to  these  worthy 
dames.  And  this  she  did  to  obey  so  good  a  mother, 
appearing  robed  superbly  in  a  gown  of  silver  tissue  and 
dove-colour,  a  la  Boiilonnoise,  with  hanging  sleeves,  a  costly 
head-dress,  and  a  white  veil,  neither  too  large  nor  yet  too 
small,  the  whole  accompanied  by  such  noble  majesty  and 
perfect  grace  that  one  would  have  judged  her  rather  a 
goddess  of  heaven  than  a  princess  of  earth.  The  Queen- 
Mother  said  to  her  :  *  My  daughter,  that  costume 
becomes  you  admirably.*  To  which  she  made  answer : 
*  Madame,  I  begin  early  to  wear  and  to  wear  out  my 
gowns  and  the  fashions  that  I  have  brought  with  me  from 
Court ;  because  when  I  return,  I  shall  bring  nothing  with 
me,  save  scissors  and  stuffs  only,  to  dress  myself  there  in 
accordance  with  the  current  fashions.  *  Why  do  you 
say  that,  my  daughter  ? '  inquired  the  Queen-Mother. 

30 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

'  Is  it  not  yourself  who  invent  and  produce  these  fine 
fashions  in  dress,  and,  wherever  you  go,  the  Court  will 
take  them  from  you,  not  you  from  the  Court ; '  so  well 
did  she  understand  how  to  invent  in  her  daring  mind  all 
kinds  of  charming  things." 

In  fact,  continues  Brantome,  whatever  she  chose  to 
wear,  elaborate  or  simple,  the  effect  was  ever  the  same 
— all  eyes  were  dazzled,  all  hearts  ravished,  so  that  it  was 
impossible  to  say  which  became  her  best  and  "  made  her 
most  beautiful,  admirable  and  lovable."  And  then  he 
goes  on  to  give  us  some  details  concerning  Marguerite's 
chief  triumphs  in  this  direction,  which  prove  that  the 
Sieur  de  Brantome  must  have  possessed  a  remarkably 
observant  eye,  as  well  as  a  tenacious  memory  :  "  the 
gown  of  shimmering  white  satin,  a  trifle  of  rose-colour 
mingling  in  it,  with  a  veil  of  lace  cre"pe  or  Roman  gauze 
thrown  carelessly  round  her  head,  making  the  goddesses 
of  olden  times,  and  the  empresses,  as  we  see  them  on 
ancient  coins,  look  like  chambermaids  beside  her  "  ;  the 
gown  "  of  rose-coloured  Spanish  velvet,  covered  with 
spangles,  and  with  a  cape  of  the  same  velvet,  with  plumes 
and  jewels  of  such  splendour  as  never  was,"  in  which  she 
appeared  at  the  Tuileries,  at  the  fe"  te  given  by  the  Queen- 
Mother,  in  August  1 573, to  the  Polish  envoys  whohad  come 
to  offer  the  crown  of  Poland  to  Henri  d'Anjou,  on  which 
occasion  Brantome  compared  her  to  Aurora,  and  Ronsard, 
who  was  with  him,  "  finding  the  comparison  very  excellent, 
made  a  beautiful  sonnet  thereon "  ;  the  confection  of 
orange  and  black,  "  the  black  relieved  by  a  multitude  of 
spangles,"  which  she  wore  at  the  Estates  of  Blois,  in 
1576;  and,  finally,  the  marvellous  "robe  of  crinkled 
cloth-of-gold,"  which,  together  with  the  charms  of  the 
wearer,  made  all  the  courtiers  forget  their  devotions  on 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Palm  Sunday   1572,  and  of  which  we  shall  permit  the 
chronicler  to  speak  at  greater  length  in  its  place. 

And  this  lovely  and  elegant  princess  was  no  insipid 
beauty,  without  a  thought  in  her  pretty  head  beyond  the 
shape  of  a  coiffure  or  the  fit  of  a  gown.  She  was  a  clever, 
even  a  talented  woman.  A  true  grand-daughter  of 
Francois  I.,  she  had  inherited  the  intellectual  tastes  of  the 
"Father  of  Letters  "and  read  widely  and  with  discrimination. 
As  she  grew  older,  her  love  for  books  became  so  intense 
that  when  once  she  had  become  interested  in  any  work, 
nothing  could  induce  her  to  lay  it  aside  until  finished, 
"  and  very  often  she  would  lose  both  her  eating  and 
drinking."  A  complete  mistress  of  her  native  tongue,  as 
her  Memoires  and  letters  prove,  and  well-acquainted  with 
more  than  one  foreign  language,  she  was  also  a  sound 
classical  scholar.  When  Adam  Kanarski,  Bishop  of  Posen, 
the  head  of  the  Embassy  from  Poland,  already  mentioned, 
harangued  her  in  Latin,  she  replied  at  once  eloquently 
and  pertinently  without  the  aid  of  an  interpreter,  to  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  the  learned  prelate  and  his 
colleagues.  She  would  seem  indeed  to  have  been  an 
admirable  speaker,  since  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to 
Bordeaux,  in  1578,  we  hear  of  her  making  three  speeches 
in  succession ;  one  in  answer  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese, 
the  second  to  that  of  the  governor  of  the  province,  and 
the  third  in  reply  to  an  address  presented  her  by  the  First 
President  of  the  Parliament  of  Bordeaux,  "  even  changing 
her  words  to  each,  without  reiterating  in  the  last  speech 
anything  which  she  had  said  in  the  first  or  second, 
although  upon  the  same  subject."  So  that  the  president 
was  afterwards  heard  to  declare  that,  though  her  two 
predecessors  on  the  throne  of  Navarre,  Marguerite 
d'Angouleme  and  Jeanne  d'Albret,  had  had  in  their  day 

32 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

"  the  most  golden-speaking  lips  in  France,"  they  were 
"  but  novices  and  apprentices  compared  with  her." 

Her  conversation,  "  grave  and  full  of  majesty  and 
eloquence  in  high  and  serious  discourse,"  was  on  ordinary 
occasions  distinguished  by  a  very  pretty  wit,  without, 
however,  Brantome  is  careful  to  tell  us,  a  suspicion  of 
malice,  and  a  wonderful  quickness  of  repartee  which  made 
her  the  life  and  soul  of  any  company  she  might  happen 
to  be  in. 

It  is  indeed  lamentable  to  reflect  that  a  woman  possessed 
of  so  many  natural  advantages  and  so  singularly  gifted 
should  have  been  ruined  by  the  vitiated  atmosphere  amidst 
which  she  was  brought  up,  and  by  that  complete  absence 
of  moral  sense  which  distinguished  the  later  Valois.  But 
at  the  time  of  her  love-affair  with  the  Due  de  Guise, 
Marguerite  was  still  only  a  girl,  and  the  unpleasant  side 
of  her  character  was  as  yet  undeveloped.  It  will  be  time 
enough  to  speak  of  that  later  on. 

If  Marguerite  easily  eclipsed  all  the  women  of  the 
Court,  the  Due  de  Guise  exercised  a  like  pre-eminence 
over  the  nobles  who  adorned  it,  at  least  over  those  of 
the  younger  generation.  At  the  time  of  the  assassination 
of  his  father,  the  second  Due  de  Guise,  in  February  1563, 
Henri  de  Lorraine  was  in  his  thirteenth  year,  when,  as  the 
eldest  son  of  the  celebrated  soldier,1  he  succeeded  to  his 
title  and,  at  the  dying  duke's  special  request,  to  all  his 

1  By  his  marriage  with  Anne  d'Este,  daughter  of  Ercole  d'Este,  Duke 
of  Ferrara,  Fran£ois  de  Lorraine  had  five  children,  (i)  Henri,  Prince 
de  Joinville,  third  Duke  de  Guise,  born  December  31,  1550 
(2)  Catherine  Marie,  born  July  1552,  married  to  Louis  Due  de  Mont- 
pensier.  (3)  Charles,  Marquis,  afterwards  Due  de  Mayenne,  born 
March  1554.  (4)  Louis,  Cardinal  de  Guise,  born  July  1555.  (5)  Fran- 
9ois,  born  December  1558,  died  October  1573. 

33  c 

I 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

offices,  which  comprised  those  of  Grand  Master,  Grand 
Chamberlain,    and   Governor   of  Champagne   and    Brie. 
Although  so  young,  he  had  accompanied  his  father  in  his 
last  campaign,  and  at  the  siege  of  Orleans,  where  Francois 
de  Lorraine  lost  his  life,  had  had  more  than  one  oppor- 
tunity of  giving  proof  of  that  cool  intrepidity  for  which 
he  was  subsequently   remarkable.     After    the   Peace   of 
Amboise,  which  brought  to  an  end  the  first  civil  war,  he 
went  to  Vienna,  in  the  hope  of  seeing  service  against  the 
Turks,  and  met  with  a  very  flattering  reception  at  the 
Imperial    Court.     But   the   inactivity    of   the   Austrian 
troops  gave  him  no  chance  of  earning  the  military  renown 
for  which  he  craved,   and,   in  the  spring   of  1567,   he 
returned   to  France.     On  the  renewal  of  the   Wars  of 
Religion,  Guise  was  sent  with  his  uncle,  the  Due  d'Aumale, 
to  the  North-Eastern  frontier,  where  he  was  rash  enough 
to  attack  Coligny  with  a  much  inferior  force,  and  to  be 
driven  back  with  heavy  loss.     Nor  was  he  more  fortunate 
at  the  beginning  of  the  second  civil  war.     Entrusted  with 
the  command  of  a  body  of  men-at-arms,   in  the  royal 
army  under  Anjou  and  Tavannes,  the  duke,  burning  to 
distinguish  himself,  ignored  the  orders  of  both ;  and  the 
disaster  of  Roche- Abeille  (June  1 569)  was  largely  due  to 
his   insubordination.1     However,   the  memory  of  these 
failures  was  soon  effaced,  in  the  public  mind  at  least,  by 
his  heroic  defence  of  Poitiers  against  Coligny,  a  feat  which 
recalled  his  father's  historical  defence  of  Metz  in  1555  ; 
and  from  that  time  Henri  de  Lorraine  became  a  popular 
hero,  the  idol  of  Catholic  France. 

"  France  was  mad  about  this  man,"  writes  Balzac,  "  for 

it  is  too  little  to  say  that  she  was  in  love  with  him.     Her 

passion   approached   idolatry  ;    there   were  persons  who 

1  fMemoires  de  Tavannes 

54 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

invoked  him  in  their  prayers,  others  who  inscribed  his 
portrait  in  their  books.  His  portrait,  indeed,  was  every- 
where ;  some  ran  after  him  in  the  street  to  touch  his  mantle 
with  their  rosaries,  and  one  day,  when  he  entered  Paris  by 
the  Porte  Saint- Antoine,  on  his  return  from  a  journey  to 
Champagne,  they  not  only  cried  :  *  Vive  Guise '  /  but 
many  sang  :  '  Hosanna  filio  ' 'David*  /  Large  assemblies 
were  known  to  yield  themselves  at  once  captive  to  his 
pleasant  countenance.  No  heart  could  resist  that  face ; 
it  persuaded  before  he  opened  his  mouth  .  .  .  And 
Huguenots  belonged  to  the  League  when  they  beheld  the 
Due  de  Guise." 

That  such  should  have  been  the  case  is  not  difficult  to 
understand,  for  Guise  possessed  in  a  pre-eminent  degree 
all  those  qualities  which  command  the  admiration  and 
affection  of  an  impressionable  people.  To  a  commanding 
stature  and  extraordinary  physical  strength  he  united  "  the 
delicate  beauty  and  the  Southern  grace  of  his  Borgia 
ancestors.'*1  He  excelled  in  all  manly  exercises  :  horse- 
manship, swimming,  fencing,  tennis,  the  use  of  arms. 
His  manners  were  charming ;  he  had  a  smile  and  a 
pleasant  word  for  all,  rich  and  poor  alike,  and  would 
converse  as  readily  with  the  tradesman  at  his  shop  door  or 
the  artisan  at  his  toil  as  with  the  noble  at  the  Court ; 
while  his  liberality  was  such  that  it  was  said  that  he  was 
the  greatest  usurer  in  France,  since  every  one  was  in  his 
debt,  either  for  monetary  assistance  or  for  some  favour 
received. 

Guise  had  undoubtedly  great  gifts :  dauntless  courage, 
untiring  energy,  a  remarkable  keenness  of  perception,  a 
rare  sagacity  in  estimating  character,  and  a  wonderful 
aptitude  for  the  management  of  affairs.  But  they  were 

1  Mr.  H.  C.  McDowall,  "Henry  of  Guise  and  other  Portraits.' 

35 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

discounted  by  grave  faults.  His  ambition  was  boundless,1 
and  he  was  quite  unscrupulous  as  to  the  means  employed 
to  attain  his  ends  ;  he  was  wanting  in  patience  and  fore- 
sight and,  like  his  uncle,  the  crafty  Cardinal  de  Lorraine, 
carried  dissimulation  to  its  furthest  limits. 

So  mortified  was  Marguerite  de  Valois  by  the  accusations 
of  her  brother,  and  the  consequent  withdrawal  of  the 
confidence  which  the  Queen-Mother  had  reposed  in  her, 
that  she  fell  into  a  state  of  the  most  profound  depression, 
and,  while  in  this  condition,  was  attacked  by  "  a  severe 
and  continuous  purple  fever"  ("  une  grande  fievre  continue 
et  du  pourpre"),  which  was  then  ravaging  the  camp  of 
the  besiegers  and  had  already  carried  off  the  two  first 
physicians  of  the  King,  Chapelain  and  Castelan,2  as  though 
seeking,  according  to  Marguerite's  expression,  "  to  do 
away  with  the  shepherds  in  order  to  make  short  work  of 
the  flock." 

The  princess  was  seriously  ill,  and  for  more  than  a 
fortnight  her  life  was  in  danger.  "  Whilst  I  was  in  this 
extremity,"  she  says,  *'  my  mother,  who  knew  what  was 
partly  the  cause  of  my  illness,  omitted  nothing  which 
could  relieve  me,  taking  the  trouble  to  visit  me  at  all 
hours,  regardless  of  danger.  This  alleviated  my  sufferings 
considerably  ;  but  they  were  correspondingly  increased 
by  the  duplicity  of  my  brother  (Anjou),  who,  after  having 
behaved  thus  treacherously  towards  me  and  shown  me 

1  According  to  an  historian  of  the  Guises,  Rene  de  Bouilld,  who, 
however,  does  not  give  his  authority,  Francois  de  Lorraine  had  accu- 
rately gauged  his  son's  character,  and  had  predicted  that  he  would  fall  in 
an  attempt  to  subvert  the  kingdom. 

2  It  was  probably  to  the  skill  of  Castelan  that  Catherine  de'  Medici 
owed  her  recovery  from  the  fever  with  which  she  was  attacked  at  Metz, 
some  months  previously. 

36 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

such  base  ingratitude,  never  stirred  from  my  bedside  night 
or  day,  attending  to  my  wants  as  officiously  as  if  we  had 
been  at  the  period  of  our  warmest  affection.  As  I  had 
my  mouth  closed  by  command,  I  could  only  reply  to  his 
hypocrisy  by  sighs — as  Burrhus  did  to  Nero,  whilst  dying 
by  the  poison  which  that  tyrant  had  administered — 
showing  him  plainly  enough  that  my  illness  had  been 
caused  by  the  contagion  of  slander  and  not  by  that  of 
infected  air."  At  length,  the  princess's  vigorous  con- 
stitution triumphed  over  the  disease,  and  when  the  Court 
quitted  Saint-Jean  d'Angely,  after  its  surrender  at  the 
beginning  of  December  1 569,  she  was  sufficiently  recovered 
to  accompany  it. 

At  Angers,  whither  they  proceeded,  they  found  the 
Due  de  Guise  and  his  uncles,  which,  Marguerite  assures 
us,  occasioned  her  intense  mortification,  "  as  it  gave  colour 
to  her  brother's  inventions."  However,  Anjou,  since  the 
beginning  of  his  sister's  illness,  had  treated  her  in  a  most 
affectionate  manner,  and  now,  so  far  from  throwing  any 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  Marguerite's  intimacy  with  Guise, 
used  to  bring  him  to  her  apartments  almost  every  day 
"  and  would  often  exclaim,  embracing  him :  '  Would  to 
God  you  were  my  brother  ! ' 

It  is  very  improbable  that  Guise  allowed  himself  to  be 
deceived  by  this  perfidious  show  of  friendship,  for  he 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  aware  of  the  profound  aversion 
which  Anjou  already  entertained  for  him.  From  early 
boyhood  the  young  prince  had  cherished  against  the  House 
of  Lorraine,  whose  ambition  and  audacity  he  had  in- 
stinctively divined,  those  sentiments  of  hatred  and  jealousy 
which,  nineteen  years  later,  were  to  culminate  in  the 
tragedy  of  Blois,  and  the  youthful  head  of  the  family  was 
the  object  of  his  special  antipathy.  He  had  been  intensely 

37 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

irritated  by  the  duke's  studied  disregard  of  his  orders 
during  the  war,  by  the  applause  which  had  greeted  his 
exploits  on  the  day  of  Jarnac,  which,  in  his  vanity,  he 
imagined  ought  to  have  been  reserved  for  himself,  and, 
still  more,  by  the  enthusiasm  aroused  by  his  defence  of 
Poitiers.  Moreover,  the  pale,  thin,  black-haired  prince 
could  not  but  feel  whenever  he  beheld  this  blonde  giant, 
a  galling  sense  of  his  own  inferiority — inferiority  in  cour- 
age, both  moral  and  physical,  in  intellect  and  ability  ;  in 
every  accomplishment — with  the  possible  exception  of 
dancing — and,  worst  of  all,  in  personal  appearance  ;  for 
had  not  the  Duchesse  de  Retz  declared  that  "  those 
Lorraine  princes  had  such  an  air  of  distinction  that  other 
princes  appeared  plebeian  beside  them." 

But  Marguerite  smiled  on  the  handsome  young  duke 
and,  if  the  latter  had  his  suspicions  as  to  Anjou's  motives, 
he  was  careful  not  to  permit  them  to  be  seen  and,  in  the 
meanwhile,  gladly  availed  himself  of  every  opportunity  of 
paying  his  court  to  the  princess.  That  Marguerite  was 
completely  fascinated  by  her  brilliant  admirer  admits,  as 
we  have  said  elsewhere,  of  no  possible  doubt,  notwith- 
standing her  protestations  to  the  contrary.  "  She  had 
lodged  all  the  affections  of  her  heart  in  this  prince,  who 
possessed  such  attractive  qualities,"  writes  Dupleix.  That 
Guise  loved  her  is  not  quite  so  certain.  Some  two  years 
earlier,  it  had  been  reported  that  he  was  paying  marked 
attention  to  Catherine  de  Cleves l  the  widow  of  Antoine  de 
Cr6y,  Prince  de  Porcien  ; 2  but  whether  or  not  the  image 

1  She  was  one  of  the  three  daughters  of  Francois  de  Cleves,  Due  de 
Nevers. 

8  The  Prince  de  Porcien  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Huguenot 
party,  and  entertained  the  most  violent  hatred  of  the  Guises.  On  his 
death-bed,  he  is  said  to  have  thus  addressed  his  wife  :  "  You  are  young, 
beautiful  and  rich ;  you  will  have  many  suitors  when  I  am  gone.  I 

38 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

of  this  lady  had  been  effaced  by  Marguerite's  superior 
charms,  it  had  ever  been  the  practice  of  his  family  to 
subordinate  their  affections  to  their  interests  ;  and,  we 
may  be  sure,  that  he  played  the  lover  well  enough  to 
satisfy  the  most  exacting  maiden.  Several  historians 
have  hinted  that  Marguerite  had  been  the  duke's  mis- 
tress;1 but  though  there  is  no  doubt  that  at  a  later 
period  she  lived  a  very  dissolute  life,  nothing  authorises 
such  a  supposition.  The  laws  of  etiquette,  as  one  of  her 
biographers  very  justly  remarks,  were  far  too  severe  to 
render  it  possible  for  a  Daughter  of  France,  especially  one 
watched  by  a  prudent  and  suspicious  mother,  to  commit 
such  a  fault ;  while  it  is  in  the  last  degree  improbable 
that  Henri  de  Lorraine,  who  aspired  to  the  princess's 
hand,  would  have  entertained  the  thought  of  dishonouring 
her.2 

The  young  duke's  pretensions  found  a  warm  supporter 
in  his  uncle,  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  ;  indeed,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  that  scheming  prelate  had  himself 
suggested  the  idea  of  such  a  marriage  to  his  nephew. 
Nor  were  these  pretensions  nearly  so  exorbitant  as  may 
as  first  sight  appear.  Guise  and  his  brothers,  though,  of 
course,  ranking  below  the  Princes  of  the  Blood,  took 
precedence  of  all  the  nobility,  with  the  exception  of  the 

have  no  objection  to  your  marrying  again,  if  only  it  be  not  the  Due  de 
Guise.  Let  not  my  worst  enemy  inherit  what,  of  all  my  possessions,  I 
have  cherished  the  most." 

1  Elk  (Marguerite}  wait  eu  avec  lui  (Guise}  des  privautes  plus  grands 
qtfil  ne  fallait. — Davila   (French    translation).      The    same   historian 
declares  that  "  their  intimacy  was  so  public  that  there  was  even  a  report 
that  they  had  contracted  a  secret  marriage ;  but  if  this  had  been  the  case, 
we  should  certainly  have  heard  something  about  it  at  the  time  of  Mar- 
guerite's divorce  from  Henri  IV." 

2  Imbert  de  Saint-Amand,  Lesfemmes  de  la  Cour  des  derniers  Galois. 

39 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Montmorencies,  by  virtue  of  their  descent  from  Louis  XII. 
through  Ren6e  de  France,  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  whose 
daughter  Anne  d'Este  had  married  Francois  de  Lorraine. 
Moreover,  though  the  Daughters  of  France  were  destined 
to  be  the  consorts  of  kings  and  foreign  princes,  vassals 
of  the  Crown  had  occasionally  been  honoured  with  their 
hands.  Thus,  the  Comte  de  Foix  had  married  Madeleine 
de  France,  daughter  of  Charles  VII.,  while,  to  cite  a  more 
recent  instance,  Marguerite's  elder  sister,  Claude,  had 
married  Charles  II.,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  head  of  the  elder 
branch  of  the  family. 

However  that  may  be,  the  prospect  of  such  an  alliance 
was  very  far  from  calculated  to  commend  itself  to  the 
Valois.  Quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  the  duke's 
marriage  with  Marguerite  would  have  destroyed  the 
equilibrium  between  the  great  nobles  of  the  realm,  which 
it  was  Catherine  de'  Medici's  chief  object  to  maintain,  and 
restored  to  the  ambitious  Lorraine  princes  a  great  part  of 
the  influence  which  they  had  wielded  with  such  disastrous 
results  in  the  previous  reign,  negotiations  had  been  for 
some  time  past  in  progress  for  the  marriage  of  the 
princess  to  Dom  Sebastian,  the  young  King  of  Portugal. 
It  is,  therefore,  not  a  little  singular  that  so  shrewd  a 
politician  as  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  should  have 
encouraged  his  nephew  in  a  course  which  had  so  small 
a  prospect  of  success,  and  could  hardly  fail  to  provoke 
the  greatest  resentment  in  the  Royal  Family. 

During  the  spring  of  1570,  Marguerite  and  the  Due 
de  Guise  met  constantly,  and  by  May  the  intimacy  had 
gone  so  far  that  it  had  become  the  chief  topic  of  con- 
versation at  the  Court ;  and  the  Spanish  ambassador  wrote 
to  Philip  II.  that  "  there  was  nothing  talked  of  publicly 
in  France  but  the  marriage  of  Madame  Marguerite  with 

40 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

the  Due  de  Guise ; "  1  while  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  told 
the  Legate  that  "the  principal  persons  concerned  were 
already  agreed,"  and  boasted  openly  that  the  head  of  the 
elder  branch  of  his  family  had  married  the  elder  sister, 
and  the  head  of  the  younger  should  have  the  younger. 

These  injudicious  words  were  repeated  to  the  Queen- 
Mother,  who  went  to  visit  the  cardinal,  who  was  ill  in 
bed,  and  angrily  demanded  an  explanation.  The  prelate, 
perceiving  in  which  quarter  the  wind  sat,  protested  that 
he  had  been  misrepresented,  but  without  convincing 
Catherine,  who  departed  in  a  very  ill-humour.  However 
Guise,  encouraged  secretly  by  Marguerite,  declined  to 
abandon  the  field  and,  thanks  to  the  complacency  of  the 
Comtesse  de  Mirandole,  one  of  the  Queen's  ladies  of 
honour,  carried  on  a  correspondence  with  the  princess. 
Marguerite  added  some  very  affectionate  lines  in  her  own 
handwriting  to  the  letters  which  the  duke  received  from 
Madame  de  Mirandole,  and  the  duke  replied  not  less 
tenderly.  About  the  middle  of  June  1570,  one  of  these 
epistles  was  intercepted  by  Du  Guast,  who  carried  it  in 
triumph  to  the  Due  d'Anjou,  who,  in  turn,  laid  it  before 
the  Queen-Mother  and  Charles  IX.  Catherine  imme- 
diately sent  for  her  daughter,  reproached  her  bitterly  with 
her  conduct,  and  ordered  her  to  break  ofF  all  intercourse 
with  the  duke,  who,  together  with  his  brother,  the  Due 
de  Mayenne,  was  forbidden  to  approach  her ;  while  the 
Cardinals  de  Lorraine  and  de  Guise  received  a  peremptory 
order  to  give  public  denial  to  the  rumours  of  a  betrothal 
between  their  nephew  and  the  princess. 

As  for  Charles  IX.,  his  resentment,  on  learning  the 
news,  was  so  artfully  inflamed  by  the  insinuations  of 

1  Bibliotheque  Natiotta/e,  Coll.  Simancas,  cited  by  Bouill6,  Hiitoire  ties 
Dues  de  Guise,  iii.  28. 

41 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Anjou  that  he  ended  by  falling  into  one  of  those 
violent  fits  of  excitement  hardly  distinguishable  from 
actual  insanity  to  which  he  was  subject.  Vowing  that 
nothing  but  Guise's  blood  could  atone  for  his  intoler- 
able presumption,  he  sent  for  his  half-brother,  Henri 
d'Angoul£me,  Grand  Prior  of  France,1  and,  when  he 
appeared,  pointed  to  two  swords  and  exclaimed :  "  You 
see  those  two  swords  ;  one  is  to  kill  you,  if  to- 
morrow, when  I  go  to  the  chase,  you  do  not  kill  the 
Due  de  Guise  !  " a 

The  Grand  Prior,  though  he  had  little  stomach  for 
the  business,  being  well  aware  that  the  duke's  death  would 
most  speedily  be  followed  by  his  own,  if  not  at  the  hands 
of  some  of  the  murdered  nobleman's  friends,  then  at 
those  of  the  Paris  mob,  dared  not  refuse  the  commission ; 
and  it  was  arranged  that  on  the  morrow  he  and  some 
trusty  retainers  should  surround  Guise  on  his  return  from 
the  chase,  and,  under  the  pretext  of  some  dispute,  poniard 
him. 

But  when  the  morrow  came,  M.  d'Angoul^me's  courage 
would  appear  to  have  failed  him,  or  possibly  his  intended 
victim  gave  him  no  opportunity  of  putting  his  amiable 
design  into  execution.  Any  way,  the  King  learned,  on 
his  return  to  the  Louvre,  that  the  duke  had  reached 
Paris  safe  and  sound. 

Furious  at  the  failure  of  the  plot,  Charles  sent  for  his 
half-brother,  bitterly  reproached  him  with  his  cowardice, 
and  repeated  his  orders,  accompanied  by  terrible  threats. 
Angoul£me  promised  obedience,  and  laid  more  than  one 
ambush  for  the  duke ;  but  the  latter,  warned  secretly  by 
d'Entragues,  one  of  the  King's  confidants,  according  to 

1  He  was  the  son  of  Henri  II.  and  a  Scotch  girl  named  Fleming. 
*  Mongez,  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  fa/ois,  p.  31. 

I* 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Mongez,  by  Marguerite  herself,  according  to  another 
version,  kept  to  his  hotel,  and  all  the  Grand  Prior's 
schemes  came  to  nothing. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Marguerite,  who  knew  her  family 
too  well  to  hope  that  they  would  ever  sacrifice  their 
political  calculations  for  the  sake  of  her  happiness,  and  was, 
besides,  greatly  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  the  man  she 
loved,  had  bethought  her  of  a  means  of  putting  an  end 
to  this  critical  situation.  Accordingly,  she  wrote  to  her 
sister  Claude,  who,  by  her  marriage  with  Charles  II. 
of  Lorraine,  had  become  a  relative  of  the  Guises,  begging 
her  to  use  her  influence  with  the  duke  to  persuade  him 
to  appease  the  King's  anger,  by  renouncing  forthwith 
all  pretensions  to  her  hand  and,  as  a  pledge  of  his  good 
faith,  to  place  a  barrier  between  them  by  contracting 
a  marriage  with  his  old  love,  Catherine  de  Cleves,  Princesse 
de  Porcien. 

Recognising  from  the  tone  of  her  sister's  letter,  that 
there  was  not  a  moment  to  be  lost,  the  Duchess  of 
Lorraine  at  once  set  out  for  Paris,  where  she  sought  out 
Guise's  mother,  who  had  married,  en  secondes  noces,  the 
Due  de  Nemours,  and  communicated  to  her  the  contents 
of  the  princess's  letter.  Madame  de  Nemours  was  not 
slow  to  perceive  the  danger  of  the  situation  in  which  her 
son's  imprudence  had  placed  him,  and  that  the  course 
suggested  by  Marguerite  was  the  only  one  now  open  to 
him,  and  she  joined  Madame  Claude  in  urging  it  upon 
the  duke  in  the  strongest  possible  terms. 

An  incident  which  had  just  occurred  lent  additional 
force  to  their  arguments.  One  night  there  was  a  ball  at 
the  Louvre,  at  which  Guise,  in  virtue  of  his  office  of 
Grand  Master  of  the  Royal  Household,  had  been  com- 
pelled to  appear.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had  been  seen 

43 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

in  public  since  the  hunting-party  which  had  been  chosen 
for  his  assassination.  Near  the  entrance  to  the  ball-room 
he  encountered  the  King,  who  laid  his  hand  on  his  sword 
and,  in  an  angry  tone,  inquired  what  he  was  doing  there. 
Guise  replied  he  had  come  to  serve  his  Majesty.  "  I  have 
no  need  of  your  services,"  replied  the  King,  livid  with 
passion.  The  duke  made  a  profound  obeisance  and 
retired.  His  disgrace  could  not  have  been  indicated  in  a 
more  significant  manner,  and  convinced  that  banishment 
from  the  Court  and  the  loss  of  his  offices,  if  not  a 
worse  fate  awaited  him,  unless  he  bowed  to  the 
storm,  he  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  his  mother  and 
the  counsels  of  the  Duchess  of  Lorraine  ;  and  shortly 
afterwards  his  betrothal  to  the  Princesse  de  Porcien  was 
announced. 

The  duke's  submission,  as  had  been  anticipated,  had 
the  effect  of  appeasing  the  wrath  of  the  King.  Guise  was 
restored  to  favour,  and  when  the  marriage  took  place, 
early  in  the  following  October,  Charles  presented  the 
happy  pair  with  a  dowry  of  100,000  livres.  Anjou,  how- 
ever, whose  hatred  of  the  duke  grew  every  day  more 
bitter,  was  not  so  easily  disarmed,  and  remarked  one  day 
to  some  of  his  favourites  that,  "  in  case  the  Due  de  Guise 
should  cast  his  eyes  on  her  (Marguerite),  he  would  pro- 
claim him  a  renegade  and  a  miscreant,  if  he  did  not 
poniard  him  to  the  heart  and  make  him  bite  the 
ground." 

Thus  ended  the  first  romance  of  Marguerite  de  Valois's 
life.  How  different  would  have  been  the  course  of  that 
life  had  she  been  permitted  to  yield  to  her  inclinations 
and  to  marry  the  one  man  whom  she  seems  to  have  loved 
with  a  passion  equal  to  that  which  she  often  inspired  ! 
How  different,  too,  in  all  probability,  would  have  been  the 

44 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

course  of  French  history  !  Certain  it  is  that  to  the 
treacherous  part  played  in  this  affair  by  the  future 
Henri  III.  may  be  traced  the  bitter  hatred  with  which 
Guise  henceforth  regarded  him  and  most  of  the  disasters 
of  the  succeeding  reign. 


45 


CHAPTER  IV 

Negotiations  for  Marguerite's  marriage  with  Dom  Sebastian 
of  Portugal — Conduct  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain — Opposition  of 
Dom  Sebastian's  advisers  to  the  match — Project  of  marriage 
between  Marguerite  and  Henri  of  Navarre — Peace  of  Saint* 
Germain — Question  of  the  good  faith  of  Charles  IX.  and 
Catherine  de'  Medici  in  this  matter  considered — Negotiations 
between  the  Court  and  Jeanne  d'Albret  in  regard  to  the 
marriage  of  Marguerite  to  her  son — The  Huguenot  leaders  and 
the  Council  of  Navarre  overcome  the  Queen's  objections  to 
the  match. 

WE  have  said  that  one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the 
hostility  of  the  Royal  Family  to  the  pretensions  of  the 
Due  de  Guise  was  the  fact  that  negotiations  had  been, 
for  some  time,  in  progress  for  an  alliance  between 
Marguerite  of  Valois  and  Dom  Sebastian,  the  young 
King  of  Portugal.1  This  project  dated  back  to  the  time 
of  Fran9ois  II.,  when  Nicot,  the  French  Ambassador  at 
Lisbon,  had  made  the  first  overture  and  remitted  to  Dom 
Sebastian  a  portrait  of  the  little  princess,  with  which  the 
King  appears  to  have  been  greatly  impressed.2  In  July 

1  According  to  Hilarion  de  Coste,  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II.  had 
demanded  Marguerite's  hand  for  his  son  Rudolph,  King  of  Hungary  ; 
but  if  the  Emperor  had  made  any  such  overture,  it  is  strange  that  the 
princess  should  have  failed  to  mention  it  in  her  Memoires.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  there  had  been  some  talk  of  an  alliance  between  Mar- 
guerite and  Don  Carlos,  the  heir  to  the  Spanish  throne,  whose  death,  in 
1568,  put  an  end  to  the  project. 

*  "  Madame's  portrait,"  wrote  Nicot  to  the  Queen-Mother,  "  has  so 

46 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

1569,  Dom  Sebastian  being  then  seventeen,  serious 
negotiations  were  opened,  and  Fourquevaux,  the  French 
Ambassador  in  Spain,  received  the  necessary  powers  to 
treat  of  the  marriage  with  Philip  II.,  uncle  of  the  young 
King  of  Portugal,  who  exercised  a  kind  of  protectorate 
over  his  nephew's  kingdom.  Philip  appeared  at  first 
well  disposed  ;  while  the  project  was  received  with  warm 
approbation  by  Pius  V.,  whose  aim  it  was  to  bring  about 
a  closer  union  between  the  Catholic  Powers,  in  order  to 
oppose  their  united  forces  to  the  aggressions  of  the  Turk 
and  the  extension  of  Protestantism  ;  and  the  Portuguese 
Ambassador  at  Madrid  informed  Fourquevaux  that  he 
only  awaited  his  instructions  from  Lisbon  to  conclude 
the  matter. 

However,  these  instructions  did  not  arrive,  and,  on 
September  5,  Fourquevaux  sought  an  audience  of  Philip 
and  asked  for  an  explanation  of  the  delay.  Philip  attri- 
buted it  to  the  plague,  which  was  then  raging  in  Lisbon, 
and  which,  he  supposed,  was  retarding  the  despatch  of 
State,  as  well  as  of  ordinary,  business.  The  Ambassador 
curbed  his  impatience  for  a  week,  and  then  again 
approached  the  King.  This  time  his  Majesty  ascribed 
the  delay  to  the  fact  that  the  Portuguese  Council  of  State 
was  composed  of  young  men,  "  not  one  of  whom  under- 
stood the  way  in  which  to  treat  of  the  said  marriage  "  ; 
and  Fourquevaux  retired  very  dissatisfied.  *" 

In  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  there  can  be  no 
possible  doubt  that  Philip  II.,  in  spite  of  his  protestations 
of  good-will,  was  opposed  to  the  marriage,  and  probably 
did  all  in  his  power  to  hinder  it,  although  no  evidence  of 

pleased  those  of  this  Court  that  nothing  could  possibly  be  better.  I 
have  been  informed  that,  so  soon  as  the  King  saw  it,  he  kissed  and 
hugged  it,  and  that  since  then  he  has  declined  to  part  with  it." 

47 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

any  active  intervention  on  his  part  exists.  The  marriage 
of  Dom  Sebastian  was  a  matter  of  supreme  importance 
to  his  kingdom,  for  the  only  male  heir  of  the  House  of 
Aviz  was  his  great-uncle  Cardinal  Dom  Henry,  and  the 
death  of  Dom  Sebastian  and  of  the  Cardinal  without 
direct  heirs  would  inevitably  be  followed  by  a  civil  war, 
arising  from  the  disputed  succession.  In  that  eventuality, 
Philip  himself,  who  had  long  coveted  possession  of  his 
little  neighbour,  fully  intended  to  come  forward  as  a 
claimant  to  the  throne,1  and  he  had,  therefore,  no  mind 
that  his  nephew  should  have  a  wife,  least  of  all,  a  French 
wife,  who,  even  if  she  were  to  bear  her  husband  no 
children,  would  give  France  an  excellent  excuse  for 
intervening  in  the  affairs  of  Portugal. 

As  for  Dom  Sebastian,  who  was  already  dreaming  of 
that  disastrous  crusade  which  was  to  cost  him  his  own  life 
and  strike  a  last  and  final  blow  at  the  declining  power  of 
Portugal,2  the  question  of  his  marriage,  and  of  all  that  it 
meant  to  his  kingdom,  seems  to  have  troubled  him  very 
little.  Moreover,  although  the  towns  of  Portugal,  when 
consulted,  had,  with  two  exceptions,  pronounced  in 
favour  of  the  marriage  with  Marguerite,  the  king's 
advisers  were  by  no  means  so  unanimous.  "  Some  say," 
writes  Fourquevaux  to  Catherine  de'  Medici,  "  that  he  is 
likely  to  have  children ;  others  judge  him  incapable  and 
dissuade  him  from  marriage  ;  for  to  marry  would  be  to 
shorten  his  life.  All  are  in  accord  in  believing  that  he 
will  not  live."  8 

1  Philip  II.  was   accepted  by    the  Portuguese   Cortes  as   King  on 
April  3,  1581. 

2  Dom  Sebastian  fell  at  the  Battle  of  El-Kasir-el-Kebir,  usually  spelt 
Alcazar  Quibir,  in  Morocco,  August  4,  1578. 

3  In  the  same  despatch,  the  Ambassador  gives  the  Queen  some  inter- 
esting details  concerning  Dom  Sebastian  :  "  He  is  sixteen  or  seventeen 

48 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

But  the  most  serious  opposition  to  the  marriage  came 
from  two  Theatine  monks,  nephews  of  the  Cardinal  of 
Portugal,  who  exercised  an  absolute  dominion  over  the 
mind  of  the  young  sovereign,  and  "  had  great  fear  of 
losing  their  credit,  if  the  king  were  once  married  to 
Madame  Marguerite."  Pius  V.  who,  as  we  have  already 
mentioned,  was  extremely  anxious  for  the  match,  de- 
spatched a  special  envoy,  Don  Loys  de  Torres,  to 
Lisbon,  bearing  a  letter  from  his  Holiness  to  Dom 
Sebastian,  urging  him  to  conclude  the  matter.  But  the 
influence  of  the  monks  was  too  strong,  and  the  mission 
failed.  "They  have  made  the  King  conceive  a  perfect 
horror  of  women,"  said  the  disgusted  Don  Loys  to 
Fourquevaux,  as  he  passed  through  Madrid  on  his  return 
journey  to  Italy.  "  It  is  they  alone  who  stand  in  the  way 
of  the  marriage.'* 

His  patience  exhausted,  Charles  IX.  wrote  to  Fourque- 
vaux: "If  there  is  a  prince  who  has  the  right  to  complain, 
it  is  I,  who  see  myself  so  unworthily  treated,  inasmuch 
as  they  do  not  desire  to  hold  to  the  promise  they  have 
made  me."  And,  after  expressing  his  opinion  that  Philip 
himself  and  not  his  nephew's  entourage  was  responsible 
for  all  the  delay,  he  ordered  Fourquevaux  to  acquaint  his 
Catholic  Majesty  that  he  was  gravely  displeased  at  the 
continued  delay  and  to  demand  an  immediate  explanation, 
as,  in  the  event  of  its  proving  unsatisfactory,  he  "  pro- 
posed to  dispose  of  his  sister's  hand  elsewhere." 

In  the  meanwhile  the  Peace  of  Saint-Germain,1  which 

years  of  age  ;  he  is  fair  and  stout  ;  he  is  thought  to  be  untrustworthy, 
bizarre,  obstinate,  and  of  the  humour  of  the  late  Don  Carlos  [/.<?.,  half- 
mad]  ...  he  has  been  brought  up  a  la  portuguaise,  that  is  to  say, 
nourished  on  superstitions  and  vanities. 

1  This  peace  was  wittily  called  "  Paix  bfyteusc  ft  malassise"  from  the 

49  D 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

brought  to  a  close  the  third  civil  war,  and  granted  far 
greater  concessions  to  the  Huguenots  than  they  could 
possibly  have  hoped  for  after  the  disasters  of  Jarnac  and 
Montcontour,  had  been  concluded  (August  1570),  and 
had  given  great  umbrage  both  to  Philip  II.  and  Dom  Sebas- 
tian, like  his  uncle,  one  of  the  most  bigoted  of  Catholics. 
The  crafty  Philip,  we  may  well  suppose,  had  not  failed 
to  represent  to  his  nephew  the  undesirability  of  his  allying 
himself  with  a  house  which  had  shown  itself  so  lukewarm 
in  its  opposition  to  heresy  ;  and,  in  October  1570,  the 
Court  of  Lisbon  replied  that  the  King  was  too  young  to 
marry,  and  that  Madame  Marguerite  was  well  able  to 
wait. 

Charles  IX.  and  the  Queen- Mother  were  not  of  this 
opinion.  "A  few  days  later,"  writes  Marguerite,  "  there 
was  a  talk  of  my  marriage  to  the  Prince  of  Navarre,  who 
is  now  our  worthy  and  magnanimous  king.1  The  Queen 
my  mother,  discussed  it  one  day  at  table  for  a  long  time 
with  M.  de  Meru,2  the  members  of  the  House  of  Mont- 
morency  having  been  the  first  to  suggest  it.  Upon  rising 
from  the  table,  he  told  me  that  she  had  requested  him  to 

royal  plenipotentiaries  who  concluded  it ;  Biron,  who  was  lame,  and  de 
Mesmes,  seigneur  de  Malassiss. 

1  This  project  was  by  no  means  a  new  one  ;  indeed,  it  is  said  that 
almost  from  the  infancy  of  Henri  of  Navarre  and  Marguerite,  the  Court 
of  France  had  dreamed  of  their  future  union.  Favyn,  in  his  Histoire  de 
Navarre,  relates  that  the  little  prince,  when  five  years  old,  was  presented 
by  his  father  to  King  Henri  II.,  who,  delighted  with  his  precocity, 
inquired  if  he  would  be  his  son.  Turning  towards  Antoinede  Bourbon, 
the  child  replied  in  his  Bearnais  dialect  :  "  Quet  es  lo  feign  pay  !  (This  is 
Monsieur  my  father  !)  "  The  King,  pleased  with  the  jargon,  asked 
him  :  "  Since  you  will  not  be  my  son,  will  you  be  my  son-in-law  ? "  To 
which  the  little  prince  replied  promptly  :  "  O  be  !  Yes,  willingly  !  " 

1  Charles  de  Montmorency,  third  son  of  the  Constable,  afterwards 
Due  d'Amville  and  Admiral  of  France. 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

speak  to  me  about  it.  I  told  him  that  it  was  unneces- 
sary, since  I  had  no  will  but  her  own,  although  she 
should  certainly  take  into  account  how  thorough  a 
Catholic  t  was,  and  that  it  would  distress  me  exceedingly 
to  marry  any  one  who  was  not  of  my  religion.  After- 
wards, the  Queen,  having  retired  to  her  cabinet,  sent  for 
me  and  told  me  that  Messieurs  de  Montmorency  had 
suggested  this  marriage  to  her,  and  that  she  greatly 
desired  to  ascertain  my  views.  I  replied  that  I  had 
neither  will  nor  choice  save  her  own,  but  that  I  implored 
her  to  remember  that  I  was  a  good  Catholic."1  The 
question  of  religion,  we  may  presume,  troubled  the 
princess  a  good  deal  less  than  she  would  have  us  believe ; 
she  had  no  inclination  for  Henry  of  Navarre,  nor  did  a 
closer  acquaintance  bring  any  change  in  her  disposition 
towards  him.  However,  Catherine's  pretence  of  con- 
sulting her  daughter's  feelings  was  a  mere  formality,  since 
both  she  and  the  King  had  decided  that  a  marriage 
between  Marguerite  and  Henri  of  Navarre  was  absolutely 
essential  to  the  success  of  their  policy. 

What  that  policy  was,  has  been  the  subject  of  inter- 
minable discussion.  Had  the  war  just  concluded  been  a 
series  of  triumphs  for  the  Huguenots,  instead  of  a 
campaign  of  disaster,  which,  but  for  the  courage  and 
skill  of  Coligny,  might  have  been  followed  by  the 
irretrievable  ruin  of  their  cause,  the  concessions  granted 
them  by  the  Peace  of  Saint-Germain  could  hardly  have 
been  greater.  They  received  a  general  amnesty  and  the 
restoration  of  their  confiscated  estates.  They  were 
granted  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  save  in  Paris  and 
the  royal  residences.  They  were  admitted  upon  equal 

1  Memoires  et  lettret  de  Marguerite  de  Va/ois  (edit.  Guessard, 
1842). 

51 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

rights  with  their  Roman  Catholic  fellow-subjects  to  the 
benefit  of  all  public  institutions  and  declared  eligible  to 
fill  every  post  in  the  State.  They  were  permitted  to 
appeal  from  the  judgment  of  the  notoriously  hostile 
Parlement  of  Toulouse  to  the  Cour  des  Requetes  in 
Paris.  Finally,  they  were  permitted  to  retain  possession 
of  four  towns  which  they  had  conquered  :  La  Rochelle, 
Cognac,  La  Charite,  and  Montauban,  as  a  guarantee  of 
his  Majesty's  good  faith,  on  condition  that  the  Prince  of 
Navarre  and  Conde  bound  themselves  to  restore  them  to 
the  Crown,  two  years  after  the  faithful  execution  of  this 
edict  of  pacification. 

Many  historians,  Catholic  as  well  as  Protestant,  see  in 
this  peace  the  snare  which  gathered  the  victims  for  the 
St.  Bartholomew.  "  A  peace  of  such  a  nature,"  says  the 
Jesuit  writer,  Louis  Maimbourg,  "  was  not  in  reality 
contemplated  by  Catherine  de'  Medici.  This  princess  had 
her  designs  in  reserve,  and  she  only  granted  the  Huguenots 
what  they  demanded  in  order  to  deceive  them  and  to 
surprise  those  on  whom  she  desired  to  be  avenged,  and 
particularly  the  Admiral  [Coligny],  on  the  first  favourable 
opportunity."  Such,  too,  is  the  opinion  of  Pere  Daniel, 
of  Papyre  Masson,  the  historian  of  Charles  IX.,  of 
Fauriel,  who  denounces  it  as  "  the  obvious  product  of 
the  blackest  deceit  and  treachery,"1  of  Davila,  and  of 
Sully.  On  the  other  hand,  Ranke,  the  Protestant  writer 
Schoeffer,  Coquerel,  Daniel  Ramee,  the  author  of  les 
Noces  vermei/les,  and  M.  Georges  Gandy,  whose  erudite 
study  in  the  Revue  des  Questions  historiques  (1866),  though 
disfigured  here  and  there  by  religious  prejudice,  is  one  or 
the  ablest  summaries  of  the  question  we  have  read,  are 

1  Essai  sur  kt  Ev&nements  qu\  ont  prepare  et  amene  le  Sainte-Bar- 
thikmj. 

5* 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

persuaded  that  Catherine  and  Charles  IX.  were  sincere  in 
their  desire  to  pacify  the  realm. 

The  evidence  which  M.  Gandy  cites  leaves,  we  think, 
no  doubt  about  the  matter.  He  points  to  Charles  IX. 's 
repeated  expression  of  a  desire  for  a  continuance  of  the 
peace  and  of  his  determination  to  enforce  the  edicts  of 
toleration  contained  in  his  letter  to  Mandelot,  Governor 
of  Lyons,  and  La  Mothe  Fenelon,  the  French  Ambassador 
in  England  ;  to  the  King's  response  to  the  Ambassadors 
who  came  to  compliment  him  on  his  marriage  with 
Elizabeth  of  Austria,  when  "  he  felicitated  himself  on  the 
peace  which  God  had  re-established  in  his  realm  .  .  . 
since  there  was  nothing  in  this  world  which  he  had  so 
much  at  heart,  nor  would  more  constantly  strive  for 
than  to  endeavour  to  bring  about  and  to  observe  peace, 
union,  and  tranquillity  among  his  subjects,  as  the  true  and 
only  means  of  securing  the  prosperity  of  kingdoms  and 
states  "  (December  23,  1570)  ;  to  the  exemplary  punish- 
ment of  those  Catholics  who  transgressed  the  edict ;  and 
to  the  many  concessions  which  were  granted  the  Huguenots 
between  the  peace  and  the  St.  Bartholomew  :  the  per- 
mission to  retain  possession  of  La  Rochelle  after  the 
two  years  mentioned  at  Saint-Germain  had  expired, 
the  withdrawal  of  the  royal  garrison  from  the  towns 
of  the  South,  the  taking  away  of  their  arms  from  the 
bourgeois  militia,  and  the  payment  of  150,000  ecus 
to  the  German  Reiters  who  had  ravaged  France  as 
their  allies. 

Again,  if  we  look  at  the  foreign  policy  of  France  at  this 
time,  we  find  it  altogether  favourable  to  the  Huguenots, 
Catherine  endeavoured  to  negotiate,  first,  the  marriage  of 
the  Due  d'Anjou  and,  afterwards,  that  of  the  young  Due 
d'Alen9on  with  Elizabeth  of  England,  as  the  counterpart 

53 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

of  the  union  of  her  daughter  with  Henri  of  Navarre  ; 
while  the  relations  of  France  with  Germany,  Flanders, 
and  Spain  all  indicate  a  policy  of  conciliation. 

Finally,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Peace  of 
1570  was  really  the  work  of  the  Third  Party — the 
Politiques  as  they  were  called — whose  leaders,  Montmorency, 
Cosseo,  and  Biron,  sympathised  with  many  of  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  Huguenots  and  were  extremely  hostile  to  the 
Guises ;  that  it  was  bitterly  resented  by  the  Guises  and 
the  High  Catholic  party,  by  the  Pope  and  by  Philip  II. 
Pius  V.,  writing  to  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  speaks  of 
the  negotiations  as  infamous.  "  We  cannot  refrain  from 
tears,*'  he  concludes,  "  as  we  think  how  deplorable  the 
peace  is  to  all  good  men,  how  full  of  danger,  and  what  a 
scource  of  bitter  regret."  And  Philip  II.  offered  to  send 
Charles  a  force  of  9000  men  to  continue  the  war.  Had 
it  been  nothing  but  a  snare,  surely  these  potentates  would 
have  been  in  the  secret  ! 

The  hand  of  Marguerite  was  intended  to  consolidate 
the  peace ;  to  flatter  the  Huguenots  and  allay  their 
suspicions,  while,  at  the  same  time,  weakening  their  power 
of  offence,  by  bringing  their  nominal  chief  directly  under 
Catherine's  own  influence.  From  the  beginning  of  1571, 
active  negotiations  were  carried  on  between  the  Court  and 
the  Huguenot  stronghold  of  La  Rochelle,  and  Biron, 
Cosse,  and  Castelnau  were  in  turn  despatched  thither  to 
confer  with  Henri's  mother,  Jeanne  d'Albret,  and  the 
Protestant  leaders.  Jeanne  d'Albret  received  the  overtures 
of  the  Court  with  mixed  feelings.  She  was  intensely 
ambitious  for  her  idolised  son  and  desirous  of  doing 
everything  in  her  power  to  promote  the  interests  of  her 
party.  But  she  hated  Catherine  and  all  the  Valois,  and 
entertained  the  most  profound  distrust  of  their  professions 

54 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

of  friendship ;  and  had  the  decision  rested  with  her  alone, 
the  proffered  alliance  would  most  certainly  have  been 
rejected.  However,  the  Huguenot  leaders  were  practi- 
cally unanimous  in  urging  her  to  consent ;  Coligny, 
who  had  divined  the  growing  greatness  of  the  young 
prince,  and  augured  much  from  the  favour  with  which 
Charles  IX.  had  always  regarded  him,  was  particularly 
insistent  on  the  advantages  which  the  party  and  the 
kingdom  generally  would  derive  from  the  match  ;  and 
ultimately,  after  long  deliberation,  the  Queen  agreed  to 
proceed  to  Pau  and  submit  the  matter  to  her  Council  of 
State. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jeanne  hoped  that  the 
nobility  of  her  little  kingdom  would  take  a  less  favourable 
view  of  the  project  than  the  leaders  of  the  party.  But, 
carried  away  by  the  eloquence  of  the  Chancellor,  Fran- 
cceur,  who  had  been  won  over  by  the  representations 
of  Coligny  and  the  promises  of  the  Court,  they  pro- 
nounced with  one  accord  for  the  marriage ;  and  the 
prince  himself  joined  in  entreating  the  Queen  to  assent 
to  the  alliance  and  to  accept  Charles  IX. 's  invitation  to 
proceed  to  Blois,  where  the  Court  then  was,  to  settle  the 
preliminaries. 

Finding  further  resistance  impossible,  Jeanne  signified 
her  assent,  though  with  a  very  bad  grace — "  Helasl  je  compte 
peu  d'amis"  she  is  reported  to  have  said,  on  perceiving  how 
entirely  the  opinion  of  her  advisers  was  against  her — and 
wrote  forthwith  to  the  King  to  announce  her  approaching 
departure  for  Blois.  At  the  same  time,  no  argument 
could  induce  her  to  permit  her  son  to  visit  the  Court, 
until  his  marriage  with  Marguerite  had  been  finally 
arranged  and  the  contract  signed  ;  while  she  directed 
Biron,  who  had  come  to  Pau  to  add  his  persuasions  to 

55 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

those  of  her  councillors,  to  inform  his  Majesty  that  she 
absolutely  declined  to  sanction  the  celebration  of  the 
marriage  in  Paris,  whose  inhabitants,  to  use  her  own 
expression,  were  " peuples mutins,  ennemis cTelle et des  siem"1 
Well  would  it  have  been  for  the  Huguenots  had  the  far 
sighted  Queen  persisted  in  this  decision  ! 


CHAPTER  V 

Jeanne  d'Albret's  journey  to  Blois — The  King  of  Portugal, 
through  Cardinal  Alessandrino,  demands  the  hand  of  Mar- 
guerite— His  alliance  declined  by  Charles  IX. — Catherine  de* 
Medici  and  Marguerite  visit  the  Queen  of  Navarre  at  Tours 
— Favourable  impression  which  Jeanne  forms  of  the  princess 
— Conference  between  Jeanne  and  the  Queen-Mother — Cor- 
dial welcome  accorded  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  by  Charles  IX., 
on  her  arrival  at  the  Court — She  resumes  her  negotiations 
with  Catherine — Her  letter  to  Henri  of  Navarre — She  for- 
bids him  to  follow  her  to  Blois — Brant6me's  description  of 
Marguerite  of  Valois's  appearance  in  the  procession  on  Palm 
Sunday,  1572 — The  negotiations  between  Jeanne  and  the 
Queen-Mother  at  a  deadlock — Jeanne  consults  the  Huguenot 
divines  and  the  English  Ambassadors — Letter  of  Walsingham 
to  Burleigh — A  commission  appointed  to  settle  the  points  in 
dispute — The  King  announces  his  intention  to  discard  all 
conditions — Refusal  of  Pope  Pius  V.  to  grant  the  necessary 
dispensation  for  the  marriage  of  Henri  and  Marguerite — 
Terms  of  the  marriage-treaty — Jeanne  d'Albret  reluctantly 
consents  to  the  ceremony  being  performed  in  Paris — Difficul- 
ties raised  by  Gregory  XIII.,  Pius  V.'s  successor,  in  regard  to 
the  granting  of  the  dispensation — Demands  of  the  Calvinistic 
divines  concerning  the  ceremonial  to  be  observed  at  the 
marriage  acceded  to  by  Charles  IX. — The  Queen  of  Navarre 
sets  out  for  Paris. 

THE  Queen  left  Paii,  early  in  January  1572,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Nerac,  to  which  she  had  summoned  an 
assembly  of  Huguenot  nobles  to  confer  with  her.  She 
next  visited  Lectoure,  the  capital  of  her  county  of 

57 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Armagnac,  recently  restored  to  her  by  Charles  IX.,  to 
receive  a  renewed  oath  of  fidelity  from  its  inhabitants. 
Here  she  remained  for  some  days,  and  then,  having 
taken  an  affectionate  farewell  of  her  son,  whom  she 
was  never  to  see  again,  she  continued  her  journey  north- 
wards, accompanied  by  her  daughter  Catherine,  then  aged 
thirteen,  Biron,  Louis  Count  of  Nassau,  brother  of 
William  of  Orange,  and  a  number  of  Protestant  nobles, 
amongst  whom  were  Rohan,  La  Rochefoucauld,  Teligny, 
La  Noue,  and  Rosny,  the  father  of  the  celebrated  Due 
de  Sully.  Between  Poitiers  and  Tours  she  was  over- 
taken by  Cardinal  Alessandrino,  the  Pope's  nephew, 
despatched  by  Pius  V.  on  a  special  mission  to  Charles 
IX.,  who  insolently  traversed  the  Queen's  train,  without 
bestowing  upon  her  the  customary  salutation,  "  deeming 
it  a  crime  and  an  impiety  to  offer  any  greeting  to  an 
excommunicated  person."  The  cardinal  has  been  charged 
by  his  uncle  to  remonstrate  in  the  strongest  possible 
terms  against  the  marriage  of  his  Most  Christian 
Majesty's  sister  with  the  son  of  so  determined  a  heretic 
and,  at  the  same  time,  to  exhort  Charles  to  return  a 
favourable  answer  to  the  suit  of  the  King  of  Portugal. 
Thanks  to  the  exertions  of  Pius  V.,  alarmed  beyond 
measure  at  the  rumours  of  the  projected  marriage  between 
Marguerite  and  Henri  of  Navarre,  the  views  of  Dom 
Sebastian  in  regard  to  the  French  princess  had  during 
the  last  three  months  undergone  a  remarkable  change ; 
and  whereas,  in  the  previous  October,  he  had  practically 
declined  the  alliance,  he  was  now  intensely  anxious  for 
its  conclusion.  Cardinal  Alessandrino,  who  had  journeyed 
from  Lisbon,  was,  in  fact,  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from  the 
young  sovereign  to  Charles  IX.,  wherein  he  even  offered 
to  accept  the  hand  of  Marguerite  without  a  dowry,  pro- 

58 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

vided  that  the  king  would  join  the  Holy  League  which 
the  Pope  was  then  forming  against  the  Turks.1 

Charles  IX.  received  the  cardinal  very  graciously,  but 
positively  declined  the  Portuguese  alliance,  remarking 
that  urgent  reasons  of  State  obliged  him  to  conclude  the 
marriage  of  his  sister  with  the  Prince  of  Navarre.  To 
console  the  Legate,  who  could  not  conceal  his  chagrin  at 
the  failure  of  his  mission,  the  King  drew  a  magnificent 
diamond  ring  from  his  finger  and  begged  him  to  accept 
it,  "as  a  pledge  of  his  esteem  for  his  person  and  of  his 
attachment  to  the  Holy  See  " ;  but  Alessandrino  was  com- 
pelled to  decline,  on  the  ground  that  the  Pope  had 
expressly  forbidden  him  to  accept  any  presents  from 
sovereigns  to  whom  he  was  accredited.2 

On  her  arrival  at  Tours,  the  Queen  of  Navarre  was 
met  by  a  messenger  from  Charles  IX.,  who  begged  her 
to  defer  her  visit  to  Blois  until  after  the  departure  of 
the  Legate,  and  offered  her  her  choice  between  the 
Citadel  of  Tours  and  the  Chateau  of  Plessis  for  a 
residence.  Jeanne  preferred  to  remain  at  Tours,  where, 
a  day  or  two  later,  she  was  visited  by  Catherine  de' 
Medici,  Marguerite,  the  widowed  Princesse  de  Conde, 
and  her  future  daughter-in-law,  Marie  de  Cleves,  and 
other  ladies  of  the  Court.  Marguerite  seems  to  have 
made  a  highly  favourable  impression  upon  the  Queen  of 
Navarre,  who  wrote  to  her  son  :  "  Madame  Marguerite 
has  paid  me  every  honour  and  welcome  in  her  power  to 

1  Letter  of  Dom  Sebastian  to  Pius  V.,  December  20,  1571,  cited  by 
M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Pa/ois,  Reine  de  France  et 
de  Navarre. 

2  According  to  Davila,  the  Legate  gave  a  very  different  reason  for  his 
refusal,  namely,  that  "as  his  Majesty  had  so  unexpectedly  deviated  from 
his  zeal  for  the  Catholic  religion,  his  most  precious  jewels  were  no  more 
than  dirt  in  the  estimation  of  all  good  Catholics." 

59 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

bestow  ;  and  she  has  frankly  owned  to  me  the  favourable 
impression  which  she  has  formed  of  you.1  With  her 
beauty  and  wit,  she  exercises  a  great  influence  over  the 
Queen-Mother  and  the  King,  and  Messieurs  her  younger 
brothers."  2 

The  following  day,  the  conferences  between  Jeanne 
and  Catherine  respecting  the  marriage  articles  began. 
"  What  a  contrast  between  these  two  women  !  "  remarks 
La  Ferriere.  "  Catherine,  with  the  big  eyes  of  the 
Medici,  whose  vivacity  was  tempered  by  a  flash  of  Gallic 
raillery,  impudently  denying  in  the  morning  what  she 
had  said  or  promised  the  evening  before  ;  and  Jeanne, 
with  her  austere,  ascetic  countenance  and  thin  lips,  whose 
smile  her  cold  Calvinism  had  frozen  ;  absolute,  authorita- 
tive, impassive  in  appearance,  and  yet  concealing  at  the 
bottom  of  her  heart  ferocious  passions."  3 

This  marriage,  settled  in  principle,  presented  in  the 
execution  considerable  difficulties  and  raised  many  thorny 
questions.  A  mixed  marriage  was,  at  this  period,  a  very 
unusual  occurrence,  particularly  on  the  steps  of  the 
throne,  hitherto  so  closely  united  with  the  Church.  In 
the  sphere  of  crowned  heads  only  one  instance  could  be 

1  Marguerite,  in  saying  this,  was  probably  acting  under  her  mother's 
instructions,  for,  according  to   Davila,  she  declared    to   her    intimate 
friends  that  she  "  would  never  resign  herself  willingly  to  the  loss  of  the 
Due  de  Guise,  to  whom  she  had  given  her  affections  and  her  faith, 
neither  would  she  of  her  own  free  will  accept  for  a  husband  the  duke's 
greatest  enemy." 

2  At  the  same  time,  little  Catherine  de  Bourbon  wrote  to  her  brother  : 
"  Monsieur, — I  have  seen  Madame,  whom  I  think  very  beautiful  and  I 
greatly  wish  you  could  see  her  too.     I   talked  well  to  her  of  you,  and 
asked  her  to  hold  you  in  her  greatest  favour,  which  she  promised  me  to 
do.     She  gave  me  a  very  cordial  welcome  and  has  given  me  a  beautiful 
little  dog,  that  I  love  much  (un  bau  petit  chien  que  jeme  bien)" 

1  Trots  amotireuses  du  XVI"  siecle  :  Marguerite  de  Valois. 

60 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

cited  :  that  of  Marie  Stuart  and  Bothwell.     It  was  not 
an  encouraging  one  ! 1 

The  two  royal  ladies  were  soon  at  variance.  Jeanne 
proposed  that  her  son  should  be  married  by  proxy,  and 
that,  after  the  ceremony,  she  should  conduct  Marguerite 
to  her  husband  at  Pau.  This  was  indignantly  vetoed  by 
Catherine,  who  demanded  :  First,  that  the  bridegroom 
should  attend  in  person  and  that,  after  the  marriage,  the 
young  couple  should  reside  for  at  least  a  portion  of  each 
year  at  the  French  Court.  Secondly,  that  Marguerite 
should  not  be  compelled  to  attend  the  prayers,  or  preches, 
of  the  Huguenots,  but  that,  wherever  she  went,  her 
husband  should  provide  her  with  a  chapel,  priests,  and 
other  requisites  for  the  celebration  of  Mass.  Thirdly, 
that  the  Prince  of  Navarre  should  refrain  from  the 
public  exercise  of  his  religion  while  at  Court. 

It  was  now  the  Queen  of  Navarre's  turn  to  be  indig- 
nant, and  she  declared  that  nothing  would  induce  her  to 
accept  these  conditions.  Indeed,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
belief  that  Catherine  was  seeking  to  impose  upon  her 
merely  her  own  wishes  and  not,  as  she  asserted,  those  of 
the  King,  she  would  have  cut  short  the  negotiations  there 
and  then  ;  a  course  to  which  she  was  strongly  urged  by 
Rosny,  who  added  :  "  Believe  me,  Madame,  that  if  these 
nuptials  are  ever  celebrated  in  Paris,  the  liveries  worn 
will  be  blood-coloured  !  " 

The  Legate  having  taken  his  departure,  Jeanne  pro- 
ceeded to  Blois,  where  she  was  received  with  every 
imaginable  honour  and  overwhelmed  with  caresses  by 
Charles  IX.,  who  called  her  "  sa  bonne  tante^  son  tout, 
sa  mieux  amie"  Her  presence  assured  the  triumph  of 

1  Comte  L6o  de  Saint-Poncy,  Marguerite  de  Va/ois,  Reine  de  France 
et  de  Navarre,  \.  1 1 1 . 

61 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Coligny,  who  had  returned  to  the  Court  from  which  he 
had  been  so  long  exiled  in  the  previous  September,  and 
had  already  gained  a  great  influence  over  the  mind  of  the 
impressionable  King,  as  well  as  over  that  of  his  younger 
brother  Alen^on,  who  seems  to  have  been  completely 
fascinated  by  the  genius  of  the  intrepid  soldier.  "  Per- 
haps," remarks  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  "  it  was  Coligny  who 
first  implanted  in  that  weak  and  unstable  mind  those 
seditious  seeds  which  were  later  to  bear  fruit." 

The  two  Queens  resumed  their  interrupted  confer- 
ences, but,  as  neither  would  give  way  an  inch,  the  affair 
made  little  or  no  progress,  and  Jeanne  complains  bitterly 
to  her  son  of  the  manner  in  which  she  is  being  treated, 
and  particularly  of  the  care  which  is  taken  to  prevent  her 
having  private  interviews  with  Marguerite ;  while  she  is 
inexpressibly  shocked  at  the  morals  of  the  Court. 

"JEANNE   D'ALBRET  to  HENRI  OF  NAVARRE. 

14  Mon  fits, — I  am  forced  to  negotiate  quite  contrary 
to  my  expectations  and  their  promises.  I  am  no  longer 
at  liberty  to  speak  to  Madame  Marguerite  even,  but  only 
to  the  Queen-Mother,  qui  me  traite  a  la  fourche,  as  my 
messenger  will  inform  you.  As  for  Monsieur  (the  Due 
d'Anjou),  he  likewise  endeavours  to  domineer,  though  in 
a  very  courteous  manner,  half  in  jest,  half  by  deceit. 
As  for  Madame  (Marguerite),  I  only  see  her  in  the 
Queen's  apartments,  from  which  she  never  stirs,  and  she 
never  returns  to  her  own  chamber,  except  during  those 
hours  when  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  visit  her.  She  is 
always  attended  by  Madame  de  Curton  (her  gouvernante\ 
so  that  it  is  impossible  tor  me  to  utter  a  word  which  the 
latter  does  not  hear.  I  have  not  yet  shown  Madame 
your  letter,  but  she  shall  see  it.  I  spoke  to  her,  and  she 

62 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

is  very  discreet,  and  replied,  in  general  terms,  of  obedience 
to  you  and  to  myself,  in  the  event  of  her  becoming 
your  wife. 

"...  I  approve  of  your  letter  and  will  present  it  to 
Madame  on  the  first  opportunity.  As  for  her  picture, 
I  will  send  to  Paris  and  secure  one  for  you.  She  is 
beautiful,  discreet,  and  graceful ;  but  she  has  been  reared 
in  the  midst  of  the  most  vicious  and  corrupt  society  that 
ever  existed.  No  one  that  I  see  here  is  exempt  from  its 
evil  influences,  your  cousin  [the  Marquise  de  Villars]  is 
so  greatly  changed  that  she  exhibits  no  sign  of  religion  ; 
if  it  be  not  that  she  abstains  from  attending  Mass  (!)  ;  for 
in  all  else,  save  that  she  refrains  from  this  idolatry,  she 
conducts  herself  like  other  Papists,  and  my  sister  Madame 
la  Princesse  sets  an  even  worse  example.  This  I  write 
you  in  confidence.  The  bearer  of  this  letter  will  tell  you 
how  the  King  emancipates  himself;  it  is  a  pity.  I  would 
not  for  any  consideration  in  the  world  that  you  should 
abide  here.  For  this  reason,  I  desire  to  see  you  married, 
that  you  and  your  wife  may  withdraw  yourselves  from 
this  corruption  ;  for,  although  I  believed  it  to  be  very 
great,  it  surpasses  my  anticipation.  Here  it  is  not  the 
men  who  solicit  the  women,  but  the  women  the  men. 
If  you  were  here,  you  would  never  escape,  save  by  some 
remarkable  mercy  of  God.  I  send  you  a  favour  to  wear 
beneath  your  ear,  since  you  are  now  for  sale,  and  some 
studs  for  your  cap. 

"...  I  entreat  you  to  pray  earnestly  to  God,  for  you 
have  great  need  of  Him  at  all  times,  and  that  He  will 
help  you.  And  I  pray  to  Him  for  it,  and  that  He  will 
give  you,  my  son,  what  you  desire.  From  Blois,  from 
your  good  mother  and  best  friend 

"(Signed)  JEANNE." 
63 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

"Since  writing  the  above,  finding  no  means  of  deliver- 
ing your  letter  to  Madame  (Marguerite),  I  have  repeated 
to  her  its  contents.  She  made  answer  that,  before  these 
negotiations  began,  you  were  well  aware  of  the  religion 
that  she  professed  and  of  her  devotion  to  it.  I  told  her 
that  those  who  had  made  the  first  overtures  had  repre- 
sented the  matter  very  differently  and  that,  had  it  not 
been  for  this  conviction,  I  should  not  have  consented  to 
the  marriage ;  nevertheless,  while  it  was  yet  time,  I 
besought  her  to  reflect  well.  At  other  times,  when  I 
have  spoken  to  her  on  the  subject,  she  has  never  answered 
so  peremptorily  and  even  rudely.  I  believe,  however, 
Madame  speaks  as  she  has  been  commanded  to  speak ; 
also,  that  the  story  respecting  her  inclination  for  the 
reformed  doctrines  was  merely  a  device  to  lure  me  on  to 
this  negotiation.  I  never  miss  an  opportunity  to  draw 
from  her  some  avowal  which  may  console  me.  I  inquired 
of  her  this  evening  whether  she  had  any  message  to  send 
you.  Madame  for  some  time  made  no  reply ;  but  at 
length,  upon  my  pressing  her  for  an  answer,  she  replied 
that  "she  could  not  send  you  any  message  without 
having  first  obtained  permission ;  but  that  I  was  to 
present  to  you  her  compliments  and  to  say  you  were  to 
come  to"  Court.  But  I,  my  son,  bid  you  do  quite  the 
contrary.*' 

Catherine  de'  Medici  was,  above  all  things,  anxious 
to  draw  the  young  prince  to  Blois  ;  as  she  was  probably 
well  aware  that  he  had  inherited  his  father's  (Antoine  de 
Bourbon's)  weakness  for  beauty,  and  did  not  doubt  that, 
once  among  the  temptations  of  the  Court,  she  would  be 
able  to  gain  his  consent  to  concessions  which  she  might 
seek  in  vain  from  his  obstinate  mother,  if  not  through 

64 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

the  good  offices  of  his  charming  bride-elect,  then  through 
those  of  one  of  the"^'  creatures  more  divine  than  human  " 
who  formed  her  renowned  "  escadron  volant"  Henri,  how- 
ever, who  had  the  deepest  veneration  for  his  mother  and 
implicit  confidence  in  her  sagacity,  preferred  to  follow 
her  instructions  and  remained  at  Pau,  all  the  more  readily 
that  he  was  at  this  time  the  slave  of  a  fair  lady  of  the 
Court  of  Navarre,  and  far  from  disposed  to  leave  his 
mistress,  even  for  "the  hunting,  banqueting  and  other 
pleasures"  mentioned  by  Charles  IX.,  in  a  very  pressing 
invitation  which  he  despatched  to  him. 

If  Henri  had  followed  his  mother  to  Blois,  he  would 
have  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  his  bride-elect  in 
circumstances  which  might  have  caused  him  to  quite 
forget  the  beaux  yeux  of  his  mistress,  for  on  Palm  Sunday 
1572,  Marguerite  appeared  in  the  State  procession  and, 
if  we  are  to  believe  Brantome,  ravished  every  one  by 
her  marvellous  beauty  and  the  sumptuousness  of  her 
attire. 

"  I  saw  her  in  the  procession,'*  he  writes,  "  so  beautiful 
that  nothing  in  the  world  could  be  seen  so  fair  ;  because, 
besides  the  beauty  of  her  face  and  form,  she  was  most 
superbly  and  most  richly  adorned  and  apparelled.  Her 
lovely  fair  face,  which  resembled  the  heavens  in  their 
sweetest  and  calmest  serenity,  was  adorned  about  the  head 
by  so  great  a  quantity  of  large  pearls  and  costly  jewels 
and,  in  particular,  by  sparkling  diamonds  worn  in  the 
form  of  scars,  that  people  declared  that  the  serenity  of  the 
face  and  the  arrangement  of  the  jewels  resembled  the  sky 
when  it  is  very  starry.  Her  beautiful  body,  with  its  full 
tall  form,  was  robed  in  a  gown  of  crinkled  cloth-of-gold, 
the  richest  and  most  beautiful  ever  seen  in  France.  The 
stuff  was  a  gift  made  by  the  Grand  Seigneur  to  M.  de 

65  • 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Grand -Champ,  on  his  departure  from  Constantinople, 
where  he  was  Ambassador,  it  being  the  Grand  Seigneur's 
custom  to  present  to  those  who  are  sent  to  him  by  the 
great  States  a  piece  of  the  said  stuff  amounting  to  fifteen 
ells ;  which,  Grand-Champ  assured  me,  cost  one  hundred 
crowns  the  ell,  and  it  was  a  masterpiece.  He,  on  his 
coming  to  France,  not  knowing  how  to  employ  better  or 
more  worthily  the  gift  of  so  rich  a  stuff,  gave  it  to 
Madame,  the  sister  of  the  king,  who  had  it  made  into  a 
gown  and  wore  it,  for  the  first  time,  that  day,  and  very 
well  it  became  her ;  since  from  one  grandeur  to  another 
there  is  only  a  hand's  breadth.  She  wore  it  all  day, 
although  its  weight  was  very  great ;  but  her  beautiful, 
full,  strong  figure  supported  it  well  and  aided  her  greatly, 
since  had  she  been  a  little  dwarf  of  a  princess  or  a  dame 
only  elbow-high,  as  I  have  seen  some,  she  would  assuredly 
have  died  under  the  weight,  or  else  had  been  forced  to 
change  her  gown  and  take  another.  Nor  is  this  all,  for, 
being  in  the  procession,  walking  according  to  her  high 
rank,  her  face  uncovered,  so  as  not  to  deprive  the  people 
of  its  kindly  light,  she  seemed  more  beautiful  still,  by 
bearing  everywhere  in  her  hand  a  palm-branch,  as  our 
queens  of  all  time  have  been  wont  to  do,  with  royal 
majesty,  with  a  grace,  half-proud,  half-sweet,  and  in  a 
manner  little  common  and  so  different  from  all  the  rest 
that  whosoever  had  never  seen  her  and  known  her  would 
have  said :  *  Here  is  a  princess  who  is  above  the  run  of 
all  others  in  the  world  ! '  And  we  courtiers  went  about 
declaring  with  one  voice  boldly  :  '  This  beautiful  princess 
does  well  to  bear  a  palm  in  her  hand,  since  she  bears  it 
away  from  all  others  in  the  world,  and  surpasses  them  all 
in  beauty,  in  grace,  and  in  every  perfection.  Then  I  swear 
to  you  that  in  this  procession  we  forgot  our  devotions 

66 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

and  did  not  make  them,  while  contemplating  and  admir- 
ing this  divine  princess,  who  ravished  us  more  than 
divine  service,  and  yet  we  thought  we  committed  no  sin  ; 
for  whoso  contemplates  and  admires  a  divinity  on  earth 
does  not  offend  that  of  Heaven,  inasmuch  as  He  made  her 
such.' ' 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  negotiations  between  the  two 
queens  had  come  to  an  absolute  deadlock,  for,  in  addition 
to  the  points  already  in  dispute,  fresh  difficulties  had 
arisen,  relative  to  the  manner  in  which  the  marriage  was 
to  be  solemnised.  To  discuss  the  momentous  questions 
involved,  Jeanne,  having  received  the  king's  permission 
to  consult  whom  she  pleased,  summoned  to  Blois  three 
prominent  Huguenot  divines,  Merlin  de  Vaulx,  Espinosa, 
and  Vinet,  and  also  called  into  consultation  the  English 
Ambassadors,  Sir  Francis  Walsingham  and  Sir  Thomas 
Smith.  Walsingham,  in  a  despatch  to  Burleigh,  gives  the 
following  account  of  the  interview  : 

"  WALSINGHAM  to  BURLEIGH. 

"Blois,  May  29,  1572. 

"Since  I  wrote  last  unto  your  lordship,  there  hath 
fallen  out  nothing  worthy  of  advertisement.  The  matter 
of  the  marriage  between  the  prince  of  Navar  [sic]  and 
the  Lady  Marguerite  continueth  doubtful,  whereof  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  and  I  have  more  cause  so  to  judge,  for 
that  the  fourteenth  of  this  month  it  pleased  the  Queen  of 
Navar  [j/V]  to  send  for  us  to  dinner.  Immediately  upon 
our  coming,  she  showed  unto  us  how,  with  the  consent 
of  the  Queen-Mother,  she  had  sent  for  us  (as  the  Ministers 
and  Ambassadors  of  a  Christian  Princess  she  had  sundry 
causes  to  honour)  to  confer  with  us  and  certain  others, 
in  whom  she  reposed  great  trust,  touching  certain  diffi- 

67 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

culties  that  were  impeachments  to  the  marriage,  which 
things  she  would  communicate  to  us  after  dinner.  She 
said  to  us  that  now  she  had  the  Woolf  by  the  ears,  for 
that  in  concluding  or  not  concluding  the  marriage  she 
saw  danger  every  way,  and  that  no  matter  did  so  trouble 
her  as  this,  for  that  she  could  not  tell  how  to  resolve  ; 
amongst  divers  causes  of  fear,  she  showed  unto  us  that 
two  chiefly  troubled  her. 

"The  first,  that  the  king  would  needs  have  her  son 
and  the  Lady  Margaret,  the  marriage  proceeding,  to  be 
courtiers,  and  yet  would  not  yield  to  grant  him  any 
exercise  of  religion  ;  the  next  way  to  make  him  become 
an  Atheist,  as  also  thereby  no  hope  to  grow  of  the  con- 
version of  the  Lady  Margaret,  for  that  she  would  not 
resort  to  any  sermon, 

"  The  second,  that  they  would  needs  condition  that, 
the  Lady  Margaret,  remaining  constant  in  the  Catholic 
Faith,  should  have,  whensoever  she  went  to  the  country 
of  B6arn,  her  Mass,  a  thing  which  in  no  wise  she  can 
consent  to,  having  her  country  of  B£arn  cleansed  from  all 
idolatry.  Besides,  said  she,  the  Lady  Margaret  re- 
maining a  Catholic,  whensoever  she  shall  come  to  remain 
in  the  country  of  Beam,  the  Papists  there  will  take  her 
part,  which  will  breed  division  in  the  country,  and  make 
her  most  unwilling  to  give  ear  to  the  gospel,  having  a 
staff  to  lean  to.  After  dinner,  she  sent  for  us  into  her 
chamber,  where  we  found  a  dozen  others  of  certain  Gent 
of  the  religion  and  their  ministers.  She  declared  briefly 
what  had  passed  between  the  King,  Queen-Mother,  and 
her  touching  the  marriage,  as  also  what  was  the  cause  of 
the  present  stay  of  the  same,  wherein  she  desired  us  to 
severally  say  our  opinions  and  sincerely,  as  we  would 
answer  unto  God.  The  stay  stood  on  three  ooints :  First, 

68 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

whether  she  might  with  a  good  conscience  substitute  a 
Papist  for  her  son's  Proctor  for  the  Fiansals,  which  was 
generally  agreed  she  might.  Secondly,  whether  the 
Proctor  going  to  Mass  after  the  Fiansals,  which  was 
expressly  forbidden  in  his  letters  procuratory,  would  not 
breed  an  offence  to  the  godly.  It  was  agreed  that  this 
would  be  no  offence.  Thirdly,  whether  she  might 
consent  that  the  Fiansals  might  be  pronounced  by  a 
Priest  in  his  priestly  attire,  with  his  Surplice  and  Stole. 
This  latter  point  was  long  debated,  and  for  that,  the 
Ministers  concluded  that  the  same,  though  it  were  a 
thing  indifferent,  could  not  but  breed  a  general  offence  to 
the  godly.  She  protested  that  she  would  never  consent  to 
do  that  thing  whereof  might  grow  any  public  scandal,  for 
that  she  knew,  she  said,  she  would  so  incur  God's  high 
displeasure ;  upon  which  protestation,  it  was  generally 
concluded  that,  in  that  case,  she  might  not  yield  thereto, 
her  own  conscience  gainsaying  the  same,  so  that  now  the 
marriage  is  held  generally  for  broken.  Notwithstanding, 
I  am  of  the  contrary  opinion,  and  do  think  assuredly 
that  hardly  any  cause  will  make  them  break,  so  many 
necessary  causes  there  are  that  the  same  should  proceed. 
By  the  next,  I  shall  be  able  to  advertise  your  lordship  of 
the  certainty  of  the  marriage.  .  ." 1 

Walsingham's  prediction  was  verified.  Charles  IX.,  who 
was  firmly  resolved  upon  the  marriage,  losing  patience, 
determined  to  take  the  negotiations  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
two  queens  and  entrust  them  to  a  commission,  half  of 
its  members  to  be  nominated  by  himself  and  the  other 
half  by  Jeanne  d'Albret.  The  Commissioners  chosen  by 
the  king  were  Birague,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  Biron, 

1  Published  by  Bingham,  "  Marriages  of  the  Bourbons,"   i.  163. 

69 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

the  Comtes  de  Retz  and  de  Mauleverier ;  those  appointed 
by  the  Queen  of  Navarre  were  Francoeur,  Chancellor 
of  Navarre,  Count  Louis  of  Nassau,  La  Noue,  and 
her  secretary,  Le  Royer.  The  commissioners,  however, 
seemed  no  more  able  to  agree  than  had  the  royal  ladies ; 
and,  in  despair,  Charles  suddenly  declared  it  to  be  his 
pleasure  to  discard  all  conditions  whatever  and  to  pro- 
ceed forthwith  to  stipulate  the  articles  of  his  sister's 
marriage-contract,  provided  only  that  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  would  consent  to  her  son  coming  to  receive  the 
hand  of  his  bride  in  person,  in  place  of  the  marriage 
being  celebrated  by  procuration.  The  King's  proposal 
was  acceded  to  by  Jeanne,  though  not,  it  would  appear, 
without  grave  misgivings. 

There  still  remained,  however,  an  obstacle  to  be  sur- 
mounted. Both  Marguerite  and  Henri  of  Navarre  were 
descended  from  Charles  of  Valois,  Comte  d'Angouleme, 
the  father  of  Francois  I.  and  were  consequently  cousins  in 
the  third  degree,  a  relationship  which,  remote  though  it 
was,  required  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy  See  before  a 
marriage  could  be  contracted.  This  dispensation  had 
been  sought  by  Charles  IX.,  through  his  Ambassador  at 
the  Vatican,  the  skilful  de  Marie  and  the  French  cardinals. 
But  Pius  V.,  who  still  continued  to  protest  against  a  union 
which  not  only  offended  his  conscience  but  threatened 
to  ruin  all  his  political  combinations,  indignantly  re- 
fused it,  declaring  that  sooner  than  grant  dispensation 
of  marriage  to  a  heretic  he  would  "  lose  his  head." 

In  the  meanwhile,  on  April  n,  1572,  without  waiting 
for  the  response  of  the  Vatican,  the  treaty  of  marriage * 

1  This  treaty  has  been  confounded  by  many  writers  with  the  marriage 
contract  which  was  signed  in  Paris  on  the  following  August  17.  The 
deed  of  April  II  was  a  kind  of  provisionally  convention. 

70 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

had  been  signed  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Chateau  of  Blois. 
Charles  IX.  agreed  to  give  his  sister  the  sum  of  300,000 
golden  ecus  of  54  sols  tournois  each,  in  return  for  which  she 
was  to  renounce  all  her  rights  on  the  property  of  the 
family,  on  both  her  father's  and  her  mother's  side ; 
Catherine  promised  her  200,000  livres  and  the  Dues 
d'Anjou  and  d'Alen^on  each  25,000  livres,  which  were  to 
be  employed  in  the  purchase  of  Rentes  on  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  in  Paris.  But  all  this  was  never  paid,  it  appears, 
or  at  least  only  a  part  of  it.  Jeanne  d'Albret,  on  her 
part,  covenanted  to  surrender  to  her  son  on  his  mar- 
riage the  revenues  of  the  country  of  Armagnac,  12,000 
livres  of  dowry,  which  she  had  on  the  county  of 
Harle,  and  the  lands  ceded  to  her  by  the  Cardinal  de 
Bourbon  on  her  marriage  with  Antoine  de  Bourbon. 
She  also  proclaimed  him  her  universal  heir.  Marguerite's 
dowry,  in  the  event  of  her  surviving  her  husband,  was 
fixed  at  the  annual  sum  of  40,000  livres  tournois,  secured 
on  the  revenue  of  the  Duchy  of  Vendome,  with  the 
Chateau  of  Vendome,  furnished,  as  a  residence.  Prince 
Henri,  moreover,  was  to  expend  a  sum  of  30,000  livres 
in  furniture  and  decorations  for  the  palace  of  his  future 
bride.  Finally,  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon  promised  his 
nephew  the  sum  of  100,000  livres  on  the  estate  of 
Chateauneuf,  in  Thimerais,  to  renounce  in  his  favour  all 
the  rights  which  belonged  to  him  as  the  head  of  the 
family,  and  to  recognise  him  as  the  real  heir  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon. 

The  questions  of  where  the  marriage  was  to  take  place 
and  the  ceremonial  to  be  observed  on  that  occasion  re- 
mained to  be  decided.  We  have  seen  that,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  negotiations,  Jeanne  d'Albret  had  absolutely 
refused  to  consent  to  the  nuptials  being  celebrated  in 

7* 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Paris,  and  several  of  the  Huguenot  leaders  were  also 
strongly  opposed  to  a  marriage  in  the  capital.  They 
knew  how  rancorous  was  the  hostility  of  the  Parisians  to 
the  reformed  religion,  how  bitterly  they  resented  the 
Peace  of  Saint-Germain  and  the  growing  influence  of  the 
Huguenot  party,  and  how  complete  was  the  ascendency 
of  the  Guises  over  the  excitable  populace.  To  trust 
themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  city  whose  inhabitants 
regarded  them  with  such  feelings,  seemed  to  them 
the  height  of  imprudence,  for,  with  all  the  good 
will  in  the  world,  the  king  might  be  powerless  to 
save  them,  if  once  the  frenzied  fanaticism  of  the  mob 
were  to  be  aroused.  However,  the  King  and  Queen- 
Mother  had  so  many  reasons  to  allege  in  favour  of  the 
capital  that  it  was  impossible  to  gainsay  them.  They 
pointed  out  that  it  was  the  immemorial  custom  of  the 
kings  of  France  to  marry  the  royal  princesses  in  the 
metropolis  of  their  realm ;  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  hold  the  festivities  proper  to  such  an  occasion  in  any 
of  the  royal  residences  except  the  Louvre ;  that  to  cele- 
brate their  marriage  elsewhere  would  not  only  cause  the 
greatest  disappointment  among  the  nobility,  but  would 
be  deeply  resented  by  the  Parisians,  who  would  regard  it 
as  a  reflection  upon  their  loyalty;  finally,  that  the  import- 
ance of  the  alliance,  which  was  intended  to  proclaim  to 
France  and  to  all  Europe  that  the  internal  dissensions 
which  had  so  long  distracted  the  realm  were  at  length 
appeased,  imperatively  demanded  that  it  should  be  solem- 
nised in  the  capital  and  with  all  possible  magnificence. 

Very  reluctantly,  Jeanne  yielded  to  their  Majesties' 
desire  ;  but  the  Huguenot  chiefs  proposed  that,  since  to 
Paris  they  must  go,  they  would  proceed  thither  in  such 
force  as  to  render  any  attempt  against  them  on  the  part 

72 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

of  the  Guises  and  their  partisans  worse  than  useless. 
This  suggestion  was  strongly  opposed  by  the  Queen,  as 
being  likely  to  provoke  the  very  calamity  which  they 
feared  ;  but,  after  her  untimely  death,  her  wishes  were  dis- 
regarded ;  a  fatal  error  which,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
was  to  be  fraught  with  the  most  disastrous  consequences. 

Towards  the  end  of  April,  Pius  V.  died  and  was 
succeeded  by  Gregory  XIII.,  a  pontiff  of  a  more  pliable 
disposition.  Nevertheless,  the  new  Pope  did  not  at  first 
show  himself  any  more  favourably  disposed  towards  the 
marriage  than  had  his  predecessor,  for,  although  he 
promised  to  accord  the  necessary  dispensation  on  account 
of  relationship,  it  was  hedged  in  by  such  restrictions  and 
conditions  as  to  make  his  consent  little  better  than  a 
disguised  refusal.  Firstly,  the  Prince  of  Navarre  must 
make  a  profession  of  the  Catholic  Faith,  in  the  presence 
of  Charles  IX  Secondly,  the  Prince  of  Navarre  must 
himself  solicit,  or  cause  to  be  solicited  on  his  behalf,  the 
said  dispensation.  Thirdly,  he  must  re-establish  the 
Catholic  clergy,  both  regular  and  secular,  of  his  dominions 
in  possession  of  all  the  benefices  and  property  of  which 
they  had  been  deprived.  Finally,  the  marriage  must  be 
solemnised  according  to  the  ritual  of  Holy  Church, 
without  any  alterations  whatsoever. 

Charles  IX.  flew  into  a  violent  passion  when  informed 
of  the  attitude  taken  up  by  the  new  Pope  ;  and,  on 
Jeanne  d'Albret,  whose  health  had  for  some  time  past 
been  gradually  failing,  expressing  a  wish  to  retire  to 
Vendome,  pending  the  settlement  of  the  negotiations 
with  the  Holy  See,  exclaimed :  "  No,  no,  ma  tante ;  I 
honour  you  more  than  I  do  the  Pope,  and  I  love  my 
sister  more  than  I  fear  his  Holiness.  I  am  not  a 
Huguenot,  but  neither  am  I  a  fool.  If  M.  le  Pape 

73 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

conducts  himself  too  absurdly  in  this  affair,  I  promise 
you  that  I  will  myself  take  Margot  by  the  hand  and  lead 
her  to  be  married  in  full  preche."  l 

On  their  side,  the  bigoted  Calvinistic  divines,  Merlin 
de  Vaulx,  Espinosa  and  the  rest,  to  whose  counsel  the 
Queen  of  Navarre  was  wont  to  pay  so  much  deference, 
endeavoured  to  impose  all  kinds  of  vexatious  conditions 
in  regard  to  the  ceremony  to  be  observed  at  the  marriage. 
They  insisted  that  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon,  who  had 
been  chosen  by  the  King  to  perform  the  ceremony, 
"  should  array  himself  only  in  the  vestments  which  the 
said  cardinal  wears  on  ordinary  occasions,  such  as  when 
he  attends  the  Royal  Council  in  the  court  of  the  Parle- 
ment,  and  that  during  the  ceremony  he  should  content 
himself  with  delivering  the  ring  only  to  the  parties, 
without  uttering  the  accustomed  benediction  ;  that  the 
Prince  of  Navarre,  though,  if  he  received  the  express 
commands  of  his  Majesty,  he  might  accompany  the  said 
Majesty  into  the  Cathedral  of  Notre-Dame  (the  marriage, 
it  should  be  mentioned,  was  to  be  celebrated  on  a  platform 
erected  before  the  portal  of  Notre-Dame,  according  to 
the  ancient  custom  at  the  marriage  of  a  daughter  of 
France),  should  quit  the  cathedral  before  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Romish  service,  by  the  same  door  as  he 
entered,  the  prince  taking  his  departure  in  as  conspicuous 
a  manner  as  possible,  in  the  sight  of  all,  that  it  may  at 
once  be  most  evident  that  he  appeared  there  with  no 
intention  of  assisting  at  Mass  or  at  any  other  ceremony 
whatever ; "  and  so  forth. 

The  document  embodying  these  conditions  was  pre- 
sented to  Charles  IX.  and  the  Queen-Mother  by  Jeanne 
d'Albret,  who  expressed  her  intention  of  adhering  to 

1  L'Estoile 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

them  to  the  letter.  The  King,  eager  to  get  the  affair 
concluded,  assented  to  her  demands,  and  begged  the 
Queen  to  do  all  in  her  power  to  hasten  matters,  so  that 
the  marriage  might  be  celebrated  so  soon  as  the  Cardinal 
de  Lorraine,  who  had  been  despatched  to  Rome,  had 
succeeded  in  overcoming  the  scruples  of  the  Vatican. 
This  Jeanne  promised  to  do  and,  a  day  or  two  later, 
took  leave  of  their  Majesties  and  set  out  for  Paris. 


75 


CHAPTER   VI 

Jeanne  d'Albret  arrives  in  Paris— Her  illness  and  death — 
Suspicions  of  poisoning — Result  of  the  autopsy — An  "amusing 
incident" — Grief  of  Henri  of  Navarre  on  learning  of  his 
mother's  death — His  entry  into  Paris — Imprudent  conduct  of 
the  Huguenots  who  accompany  the  King  of  Navarre  exasperates 
the  Parisians — Growing  influence  of  Coligny  with  Charles  IX. 
— He  urges  the  King  to  assist  the  revolted  Netherlands  against 
Spain — Jealousy  and  alarm  of  Catherine  de'  Medici — Mar- 
riage of  the  Prince  de  Condd  and  Henriette  de  Cleves — 
Marriage  of  Henri  of  Navarre  and  Marguerite  de  Valois — 
Festivities  at  the  Louvre — Allegorical  entertainment  at  the 
H6tel  du  Petit-Bourbon. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  last  week  in  May,  Jeanne 
d'Albret  arrived  in  Paris  and  took  up  her  quarters  at  the 
Hotel  de  Conde,  Rue  de  Grenelle-Saint-Honore.1  Her 
ostensible  reason  in  preceding  the  Court  to  the  capital, 
was  to  make  extensive  purchases  in  view  of  the 
approaching  marriage  ;  jewels  and  other  costly  gifts  for 
her  future  daughter-in-law,  suitable  equipment  for  her- 
self and  her  suite,  and  so  forth  ;  but,  in  reality,  to  ascertain 
the  temper  of  the  citizens  towards  the  House  of  Bourbon, 
ere  trusting  her  beloved  son  to  their  hospitality  ;  for,  as 
we  have  mentioned,  she  entertained  the  most  profound 
dislike  and  distrust  of  the  Parisians.  On  the  evening  of 
June  4,  on  her  return  from  a  shopping  exhibition,  the 

1  ScTeral  historians  state  that  the  Queen  went  to  reside  at  the  hotel 
of  Jean  Guillart,  the  excommunicated  Bishop  of  Chartres,  but  this  is 
incorrect. 

76 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Queen  complained  of  feeling  unwell ;  during  the  night 
she  became  much  worse,  and,  on  June  9,  in  spite  of  all 
the  efforts  of  her  physicians,  she  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-four. 

Sinister  rumours  circulated  among  the  little  group  of 
Huguenots  around  the  death-bed  and  quickly  spread 
through  the  city.  A  visit  which  the  Queen  had  paid,  on 
the  day  of  her  sudden  seizure,  to  the  shop  of  Catherine 
de'  Medici's  Florentine  perfumer  Rene  ("  a  man,"  says 
L'Estoile,  "  impregnated  with  all  kinds  of  wickedness, 
who  lived  on  murders,  thefts  and  poisonings  ")  was  con- 
sidered a  most  suspicious  circumstance,  and  it  was  freely 
asserted  that  she  had  been  poisoned.  "It  was  suspected," 
says  La  Planche,  "  that  the  Queen-Mother  had  had 
recourse  to  Maitre  Rene,  her  reputed  poisoner,  who,  in 
selling  his  perfumes  and  scented  ruffs  to  the  Queen, 
contrived  to  administer  poison  to  her,  from  the  effects  of 
which  she  died  shortly  afterwards."  Such  writers  as 
L'Estoile,  Othagaray,  de  Thou,  and  M6zeray  have  not 
feared  to  add  their  testimony  to  the  common  prejudice ; 
but  there  can  be  no  question  that  Jeanne's  health  had 
been  gradually  failing  for  some  time  past,  and  the  most 
trustworthy  evidence,  such  as  that  of  Palma  Cayet, 
Henry  IV.'s  tutor,  Favyn,  the  historian  of  Navarre,  and 
the  surgeons,  Caillard  and  Desnceuds,  who  assisted  the 
Queen  in  her  last  moments,  all  goes  to  indicate  that  she 
died  a  natural  death. 

At  the  autopsy,  held  by  order  of  Charles  IX.,  by  his 
first  surgeon  and  Jeanne's  medical  attendants,  in  the 
presence  of  certain  officers  of  the  deceased  Queen's 
household,  all  the  organs  were  found  to  be  healthy  and 
free  from  disease,  with  the  exception  of  the  lungs.  "  A 
large  abscess  was  there  discovered,  which  had  broken,  the 

77 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

secretion  being  partially  absorbed  by  the  lungs,  which 
were  besides  very  extensively  diseased." 

Several  Protestant  writers  have  declared  that  the 
autopsy  was  valueless,  "since  the  brain  was  not  ex- 
amined "  ;  but  this  is  quite  untrue.  It  appears  that,  some 
time  previously,  Caillard  had  received  special  instructions 
from  the  Queen  that  after  her  death  an  examination  was 
to  be  made  of  her  brain,  "  in  order  to  discover  from  what 
cause  proceeded  the  itching  sensation  which  she  so  often 
experienced  on  the  crown  of  her  head,  so  that  if  the 
prince  her  son  or  the  princess  her  daughter  were  afflicted 
by  the  same,  they  might  know  what  remedy  to  apply." 
These  instructions  were  duly  carried  out  by  Desnceuds, 
under  Caillard's  directions  ;  and  it  was  found  that  the 
irritation  proceeded  "  from  certain  vesicles  full  of  water 
lying  between  the  brain  and  the  membrane  investing  it.'* 
Caillard  distinctly  stated  that  the  Queen  died  from  the 
bursting  of  an  abscess  on  the  lungs,  and  Desnceuds  was 
of  the  same  opinion.  "  Messieurs,"  said  the  latter, 
addressing  his  colleagues,  "  if  her  Majesty  had  died,  as 
has  been  wrongly  asserted,  from  having  smelt  some 
poisonous  object,  the  marks  would  be  perceptible  on  the 
coating  of  the  brain ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  brain  is 
healthful  and  as  free  from  disease  as  possible.  If  her 
Majesty  had  died  from  swallowing  poison,  traces  of  such 
would  have  been  visible  in  the  stomach,  where  we  can 
discover  nothing  of  the  kind.  There  is  no  other  cause, 
therefore,  for  her  Majesty's  decease  but  rupture  of  an 
abscess  on  the  lungs."  l 

"  It  may  also  be  observed,"  remarks  the  Queen's 
English  biographer,  Miss  Freer,  a  writer  by  no  means 
disposed  to  leniency  where  Catherine  de'  Medici  is 

1  Palma  Cayet,  Chronologic  norennaire. 
78 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

concerned,  "  that  the  symptoms  attending  Jeanne's  malady 
were  not  of  a  nature  to  be  produced  by  poison  ;  also,  that 
the  Queen  herself,  during  an  illness  which  lasted  five  days, 
suspected  nothing  of  the  kind,  or  she  would  have 
imparted  her  suspicions  to  Coligny,  in  the  course  of  their 
frequent  confidential  interviews,  that  he  might  warn  and 
protect  her  son  against  a  similar  fate.  The  Admiral, 
on  the  contrary,  insisted  on  the  expediency  of  Henri's 
journey  to  Paris  to  perform  the  contract  negotiated  for 
him  by  his  lamented  mother.1 

The  remains  of  Jeanne  d'Albret  lay  in  state  for  five 
days,  during  which  the  principal  personages  of  the  Court 
came  to  pay  the  deceased  queen  the  formal  visit  which 
etiquette  required.  "  On  this  occasion,"  writes  Mar- 
guerite, "  such  an  amusing  incident  took  place  that, 
although  it  is  unworthy  to  be  recorded  in  history,  it  may 
be  privately  mentioned  between  you  and  me.  Madame 
de  Nevers,2  whose  disposition  you  know,  went,  with  the 
Cardinal  de  Bourbon,  Madame  de  Guise,  the  Princess  de 
Conde,  her  sisters  and  myself,  to  the  lodgings  of  the  late 
Queen  of  Navarre,  in  order  to  acquit  ourselves  of  the 
last  tribute  of  respect  due  to  her  rank  and  to  the  relation- 
ship we  bore  her ;  not,  however,  with  the  pomps  and 
ceremonies  which  our  religion  sanctions,  but  with  the  mean 
ceremonial  permitted  by  Huguenoterie  ;  that  is  to  say, 
she  was  lying  in  her  ordinary  bed,  the  curtains  of  which 
were  drawn  back,  without  tapers,  priests,  cross,  or  holy 
water.  Madame  de  Nevers,  whom  the  Queen,  in  her 
lifetime,  had  detested  above  every  other  person  in  the 
world,  and  who  paid  her  back  by  word  and  deed  in  the 

1  Jeanne  d'Albret. 

*  Henrietta  de  Cleves,  wife  of  Ludovic  de  Gonzague,  Due  dc 
Nevers. 

79 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

same  coin — for,  as  you  are  aware,  she  knew  how  to  spite 
those  whom  she  hated — stepped  from  among  us  and,  with 
sundry  fine,  humble,  and  low  curtseys,  approached  the 
bed  and,  taking  the  Queen's  hand  in  her  own,  kissed  it ; 
then,  with  another  profound  reverence,  full  of  respect, 
returned  to  our  side  ;  we,  who  knew  of  their  hatred, 
appreciating  all  this." 

The  deceased  Queen  had  left  instructions  for  her 
interment  in  the  sepulchre  of  her  family,  in  the  cathedral 
of  Lescar,  near  Pau  ;  but  her  wishes  were  disregarded 
and,  by  the  orders  of  Charles  IX.,  her  remains  were 
conveyed  to  Vendome  and  deposited  near  those  of  her 
husband,  Antoine  de  Bourbon. 

Henri  of  Navarre,  who  had  quitted  B£arn  on  his  way 
to  Paris,  in  the  early  days  of  June,  had  arrived  at 
Chaunay,  in  Poitou,  when  the  news  of  his  mother's  death 
reached  him.  Already  in  somewhat  indifferent  health, 
the  blow,  which  was  totally  unexpected,  completely 
prostrated  him  and  brought  on  a  violent  attack  of  fever, 
so  that  Jeanne  had  already  been  laid  to  rest  when  he 
arrived  at  Vendome.  Here  he  remained  for  several  days, 
and  appears  to  have  had  some  thought  of  demanding  that 
the  marriage  should  be  indefinitely  postponed  and 
returning  to  Beam,  but  Coligny,  who  fondly  imagined 
that  the  match  was  to  be  the  dawn  of  a  new  era,  wrote 
letter  after  letter  to  induce  him  to  continue  his  journey, 
and  eventually  he  yielded  to  the  Admiral's  representations, 
and,  on  July  20,  made  his  solemn  entry  into  Paris, 
accompanied  by  his  cousin,  the  Prince  de  Conde,  and 
eight  hundred  Huguenot  gentlemen,  all  wearing  long 
mourning  mantles  of  black  cloth. 

In  the  Faubourg  Saint- Antoine  the  young  King  was 

80 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

received  by  the  Dues  d'Anjou  and  d'Alen^on,  the 
Cardinal  de  Bourbon,  the  Dues  de  Guise  and  Montpensier, 
the  Marechaux  de  Montmorency,  de  Cosse,  d'Amville, 
and  Tavannes,  and  about  four  hundred  gentlemen  of  the 
Court.  The  usual  compliments  having  been  exchanged — 
hollow  enough  in  most  instances,  we  fear — the  two  parties 
joined  forces  and  proceeded  to  the  Louvre,  through 
streets  densely  thronged  with  people,  who  applauded  the 
Due  de  Guise  and  the  other  Catholic  leaders,  and  respect- 
fully saluted  the  King  of  Navarre,  but  cast  angry  and 
threatening  glances  at  the  formidable  body  of  Huguenot 
nobles  and  gentlemen  who  brought  up  the  rear  of  the 
procession.  For  all  that  was  bravest  and  most  distin- 
guished in  Protestant  France  rode  there  :  The  gallant  La 
Rochefoucauld,  the  grave  and  chivalrous  Teligny, 
husband  of  the  Admiral's  daughter  Louise  ;  Mont- 
gommery,  the  involuntary  slayer  of  Henri  II.  ;  the 
Vidame  de  Chartres,  negotiator  of  the  Treaty  of 
Hampton  Court ;  Piles,  the  heroic  defender  of  Saint- 
Jean-d'Angely ;  Montclar,  Soubise,  Renel,  Duras, 
Grammont,  the  two  Pardaillans,  Caumont,  Guerchy, 
and  many  others,  few  of  whom  were  fated  ever  to  see 
their  homes  again. 

While  the  preparations  for  the  marriage  were  being 
made  with  all  that  elegance  and  luxury  with  which  the 
Valois  knew  so  well  how  to  invest  their  festivities,  and 
the  young  King  of  Navarre  was  engaged  in  paying  his 
addresses  to  the  reluctant  princess  destined  to  become  his 
wife,  the  Court  was  a  hot-bed  of  intrigue,  and  the  city 
seething  with  suppressed  excitement.  It  is  unfortunately 
seldom  the  practice  of  minorities  which,  after  prolonged 
and  painful  struggles,  find  power  at  length  in  their  grasp, 
to  conduct  themselves  with  tact  and  moderation,  and  of 

81  F 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

this  rule  the  behaviour  of  the  Huguenots  affords  a  striking 
illustration.  Ignoring  the  fact  that  they  were  indebted 
to  the  favourable  position  they  now  occupied,  far  less  to 
their  own  courage  and  devotion — though,  indeed,  they 
had  been  courageous  and  devoted  enough—than  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  Queen-Mother's  tortuous  policy,  they 
were  at  no  pains  to  avoid  shocking  the  susceptibilities  of 
the  Parisians.  Their  truculent  attitude  as  they  passed 
fully  armed  through  the  streets,  the  boastful  tone  of 
their  conversation,  and  still  more  their  ostentatious  dis- 
regard of  Catholic  observances,  combined  to  render  them 
intensely  obnoxious  to  the  citizens,  taught  to  regard 
these  "  half-foreigners "  of  the  South  with  horror  and 
loathing,  as  despoilers  of  churches,  contemners  of  the 
Mass,  and  slayers  of  priests.  Moreover,  their  numbers 
roused  the  greatest  apprehension  among  the  more 
timorous,  who  asked  themselves,  and  with  some  apparent 
reason,  why,  on  the  occasion  of  an  event  which  was 
supposed  to  be  the  pledge  and  proof  of  peace  and  amity 
between  the  rival  religions,  the  King  of  Navarre  should 
have  chosen  to  enter  Paris  at  the  head  of  this  formidable 
array,  and  feared  lest  they  should  be  "robbed  and 
despoiled  in  their  houses." 

And  just  as  the  conduct  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Huguenots  exasperated  the  populace  of  Paris,  so  did 
the  pretensions  of  Coligny  cause  alarm  and  resentment 
at  the  Court. 

We  have  said  that  the  Admiral  had,  from  the  time  or 
his  visit  to  the  King  at  Blois,  in  the  previous  September, 
acquired  a  great  influence  over  Charles  IX.,  and  this 
influence  had  steadily  increased  until  it  threatened  to 
completely  eclipse  that  of  the  Queen-Mother.  The 
King  was  so  entirely  dominated  by  the  Huguenot  leader 

82 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

that  he  devoted  to  him  entire  days  ;  in  his  cabinet,  at 
the  Louvre,  the  Admiral  remained  with  him  until  a  late 
hour  at  night ;  and,  in  his  Majesty's  absence,  he  presided 
at  the  Council ;  at  his  request,  the  Croix  de  Gastines,  at 
Paris,  which  was  specially  offensive  to  Huguenot  senti- 
ment, as  commemorating  the  destruction  of  a  house  and 
the  execution  of  two  of  their  number,  was  removed ; 
many  of  the  Huguenot  grievances  were  listened  to  and 
satisfaction  promised;  for  the  moment,  he  seemed  master 
of  the  situation. 

It  was  the  one  healthy  influence  that  had  come  into 
Charles's  life  ;  the  Admiral  bade  him  remember  that  he 
was  King  of  France  and  encouraged  in  him  the  desire  to 
be  a  great  king — a  warrior  like  Charles  VIII.,  like 
Louis  XII.,  like  Francois  I.,  his  grandfather.  And  ever, 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  he  urged  him  to  take  part 
openly  in  the  struggle  of  the  revolted  Netherlands 
against  Spain.  His  object  was  a  threefold  one.  In  the 
first  place,  he  knew  that,  sooner  or  later,  a  conflict  with 
Spain  was  inevitable,  unless  France  were  prepared  to  sink 
into  a  subordinate  position  in  Western  Europe.  It  were 
surely  better  that  that  conflict  should  come  while  Philip 
had  his  hands  full  than  at  the  time  of  Spain's  own 
choosing.  In  the  second,  he  naturally  desired  to  assist 
his  co-religionists  in  the  Low  Countries  to  shake  off  the 
intolerable  yoke  under  which  they  had  so  long  groaned. 
But,  most  of  all,  he  desired  war,  because  he  perceived 
that  a  foreign  war,  which  would  unite  all  parties  in  one 
common  cause,  was  the  surest,  nay,  the  only  guarantee 
of  internal  peace. 

Catherine's  position  was  indeed  an  embarrassing  one. 
Distrusted  by  the  extreme  Catholics  for  her  concessions 
to  the  Huguenots,  denounced  as  a  second  Jezebel  by  the 

83 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

bigoted  Calvinists,  and  intensely  unpopular  with  the 
people,  as  a  foreigner  and  for  favouring  the  Italian 
adventurers  who  infested  the  court,  she  now  found 
herself  threatened  with  the  loss  of  her  son's  confidence 
and  of  that  power  which  was  the  great  object  of  her  life. 
"  The  Admiral  was  taking  away  from  her  her  little  one, 
whom  she  had  so  well  accustomed  to  obey  her  and  to  do 
nothing  save  according  to  her  will.  A  declaration  of 
war  was  to  be  risked  without  her  sanction  or  approval."1 
She,  who,  by  so  many  sacrifices,  so  many  labours,  such 
sagacity  and  penetration,  had  monopolised  the  power  and 
guided  the  realm  for  nearly  eleven  years  !  A  war  by 
Coligny's  orders,  a  war  against  Spain,  the  King  at  the  head 
of  the  troops,  with  the  flower  of  France  around  him,  and 
the  Admiral,  instigator  of  everything,  active  and 
ubiquitous  !  What  would  she  be  then  ?  A  woman  in 
the  State,  but  no  longer  the  Regent,  no  longer  that  great 
Queen-Mother,  so  much  dreaded  and  obeyed !  She  saw 
the  danger ;  and  the  Louvre  saw  it  soon.  We  are  on  the 
eve  of  her  sanguinary  work.2 

The  marriage  of  the  Prince  de  Conde  with  Marie  de 
Cleves  preceded  by  some  days  that  of  his  cousin.  It 
took  place,  with  great  rejoicings,  on  August  10,  at  the 
Chateau  of  Blandy,  near  Melun,  in  the  presence  of 
Charles  IX.,  the  King  of  Navarre,  his  fiancee,  the  two 
queens,  and  a  large  number  of  noblemen  of  both  reli- 
gions ;  and  was  celebrated  tout-a-fait  a  la  Huguenefe,  a  fact 

1  The  Spanish  Ambassador  relates  that  when  the  King  proposed  to 
consult  with  Catherine  on  questions  connected  with  the  proposed  war, 
"  the  Admiral  told  him  ve'y  courteously  that  they  were  not  questions  to 
be  discussed  with  women  and  clerks." 

1  Armand  Baschet,  D  if  lama  tie  venitiennc. 

84 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

which  still  further  exasperated  the  fanatical  Catholics  of 
Paris.  The  royal  wedding  had  been  fixed  for  Monday, 
August  1 8  ;  but  on  the  Saturday  the  Papal  dispensation, 
to  obtain  which  de  Marie,  the  French  Ambassador  at 
Rome,  aided  by  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  had  been  using 
every  possible  means  of  persuasion  for  weeks  past,  had 
not  arrived.  Charles  IX.  was  beside  himself  with  anxiety 
and  vexation.  To  postpone  the  marriage  was  impossible 
without  great  inconvenience ;  while  to  celebrate  it  with- 
out the  sanction  of  the  Holy  See  would  be  to  scandalize 
the  ultra-Catholic  party,  already  sufficiently  hostile  to  the 
match,  and  to  cause  them  to  regard  it  as  illegal.  More- 
over, the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon  would  almost  certainly 
refuse  to  perform  it.  In  their  perplexity,  the  King  and 
the  Queen-Mother  resolved  to  have  recourse  to  fraud,  in 
order  to  deceive  the  public  and  the  cardinal.  They 
pretended  to  have  received  intelligence  from  Rome  that 
the  dispensation  had  been  duly  granted  and  was  on  its  way 
to  Paris.  This  assurance  satisfied  the  scruples  of  the 
cardinal,  an  easy-going  and  unsuspicious  prelate,  and, 
much  to  the  relief  of  his  Majesty,  he  raised  no  objection 
to  performing  the  ceremony.1 

On  Sunday,  August  17,  the  marriage-contract  was 
signed  at  the  Louvre,  and  Henri  and  Marguerite  formally 
betrothed  by  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon.  After  a  magnifi- 
cent supper,  followed  by  a  ball,  the  princess  was  conducted, 
in  great  pomp,  by  the  whole  of  the  Royal  Family  to  the 
palace  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  where  she  passed  the 

1  On  the  morrow  of  the  marriage,  Catherine  de'  Medici  wrote  to 
Rome  to  excuse  their  action,  representing  that  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  defer  the  union  longer  "  without  danger  of  several  incon- 
veniences "  ;  and  at  the  end  of  October,  Henri  of  Navarre,  having 
in  the  meanwhile  become  a  Catholic,  the  dispensation  was  granted. 

85 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

night ;  such  being  the  traditional  custom  on  the  occasion 
of  the  marriage  of  a  daughter  of  France.1 

The  following  day,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a 
brilliant  cortege  quitted  the  Louvre.  The  procession 
was  headed  by  a  hundred  gentlemen  of  the  King's  House- 
hold, bearing  halberds,  the  heralds-at-arms  with  their 
tabards,  emblazoned  with  the  Arms  of  France,  and  the 
Guards  with  their  clarions,  trumpets  and  cymbals.  Then 
came  the  King  of  Navarre,  accompanied  by  the  Dues 
d'Anjou  and  d' Alenc.cn,  the  Prince  de  Conde  and  his 
younger  brother,  the  Marquis  de  Conti,  the  Due  de  Mont- 
pensier  and  his  son,  the  Dauphin  of  Auvergne,  of  whom 
the  four  last-named  belonged  to  the  House  of  Bourbon, 
and  followed  by  Coligny,  Guise,  the  Svlarechaux  de  France 
and  a  distinguished  body  of  nobles  of  the  two  religions, 
of  which  this  marriage  was  to  seal  the  reconciliation. 
Henri  of  Navarre  had  assumed  the  crown  which  the 
recent  death  of  his  mother  had  placed  upon  his  head,  and 
had  discarded  his  mourning  for  "  a  costume  of  pale 
yellow  satin,  covered  with  raised  embroideries,  enriched 
with  pearls  and  precious  stones."  Similar  coats  were 
worn  by  the  Dues  d'Anjou  and  d' Alenc.cn.  "  M.  d'Anjou, 
amongst  other  jewels  in  his  cap,  had  thirty-two  pearls  of 
twelve  carats,  famous  pearls  bought  for  the  occasion  at 

1  The  marriage-contract  was  substantially  the  same  as  the  treaty,  signed 
on  the  previous  April  1 1,  save  that  Henri,  who  now  took  the  titles  of 
"King  of  Navarre,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  sovereign  lord  of  Bearn,/<«> 
de  France,  Due  de  Vendome,  d'Albret,  de  Beaumont,  de  Gaudie,  de 
Montblanc,  et  de  Pegnafiel,  Comte  de  Foix,  d'Armagnac,  de  Marie, 
Bigorre,  et  Rodez,  Vicomte  de  Limoges,  Marsan,  et  Lautrec  ;  governor 
for  the  King  of  France  and  his  lieutenant-general  and  admiral  in  Vienne," 
relinquished  to  his  bride  the  revenues  of  the  counties  of  Marie,  Chatel- 
lenies,  de  la  Fere,  Ham,  Bohain  and  Beauvoir,  with  the  right  to  dispose 
of  their  offices  and  benefices. 

86 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Gonella,  at  a  cost  of  23,000  golden  ecus."  1  It  was  re- 
marked that,  with  the  exception  of  the  bridegroom,  all 
the  Protestant  nobles  affected  a  Puritan  simplicity  of 
attire,  while  the  Catholics  displayed  the  greatest  osten- 
tation. 

The  cavalcade  proceeded  to  the  archbishop's  palace, 
from  which  presently  emerged  the  bride,  conducted  by 
the  King,  "  whose  cap,  poniard,  and  raiment,"  says  the 
Venetian  Ambassador,  "  represented  from  five  to  six 
hundred  thousand  ecus,  and  followed  by  the  Queen,  the 
Queen-Mother,  the  Duchess  of  Lorraine,  and  more  than 
one  hundred  and  twenty  ladies  of  the  Court,  "  brilliant  in 
the  most  splendid  stuffs,  such  as  brocade,  cloth-of-gold, 
and  velvet  brocaded  in  gold  and  laced  with  silver,"  and 
covered  with  diamonds,  rubies  and  other  precious  stones. 
Marguerite  was  attired  in  a  robe  of  violet  spangled  with 
fleurs-de-lys,  "  with  the  crown,  and  the  couet  of  speckled 
ermine,  which  was  worn  on  the  front  of  the  body,  all  glit- 
tering with  the  Crown  jewels  and  the  large  blue  mantle, 
with  a  train  four  ells  long,  which  was  borne  by  three 
princesses."  2  Thus  dressed  a  la  royale,  according  to  her 
own  expression,  "  flashing  with  diamonds  and  jewels,  but 
more  seducing  still  by  the  power  of  her  own  charms, 
she  advanced  adorned  for  the  sacrifice." 

A  magnificent  amphitheatre,  covered  with  cloth-of-gold, 
with  side-galleries,  one  of  which,  passing  through  the 
nave,  led  to  the  choir,  and  the  other  to  the  episcopal 
palace,  had  been  erected  before  the  porch  of  Notre-Dame. 
Along  the  latter,  the  Court  made  its  way,  while  an 
enormous  concourse  of  people  thronged  the  windows  and 

1  Giovanni  Michieli,  Relazicne  della  corte  a'i  Francia,  cited  by  Armand 
Baschet,  la  Diplomatic  venitienne. 

*  Me  moires  et  lettret  <U  Marguerite  de  Valols  (edit.  Guessard). 

87 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

roofs  of  the  adjoining  houses,  and  surged  and  jostled  one 
another  below  the  platform,  in  order  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  procession.  That  the  marriage  was  intensely 
unpopular  among  the  Parisians  was  evident  from  the 
behaviour  of  the  spectators.  There  was  an  almost  com- 
plete absence  of  the  enthusiasm  usually  manifested  on 
such  occasions  ;  curiosity  alone  seemed  to  have  brought 
them  together,  and  the  King  and  the  other  members  of 
the  Royal  Family  were  suffered  to  pass  by  with  hardly  an 
acclamation.  At  the  far  end  of  the  amphitheatre,  by  the 
door  of  the  cathedral,  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon  was 
awaiting  the  youthful  pair,  and  the  marriage  was  per- 
formed according  to  the  formula  previously  agreed  upon 
by  the  two  parties.  Davila  relates  that  when  the  cardinal 
asked  Marguerite,  whose  deathly  pallor  and  dejected  air 
appeared  to  many  to  augur  but  ill  for  the  happiness  of 
the  marriage,  whether  she  accepted  the  King  of  Navarre 
for  her  husband,  she  refused  to  reply,  whereupon 
Charles  IX.  gave  her  a  little  push  at  the  back  of  her 
head  "  to  make  her  give  that  sign  of  consent,  in  lieu  of 
speech."  l 

After  the  marriage  was  concluded,  the  bridal  pair, 
with  their  suites,  proceeded  along  a  platform  into  the 
cathedral,  as  far  as  the  tribune  separating  the  nave  from 
the  choir.  Here  they  found  two  flights  of  steps,  one  of 
which  led  down  to  the  choir,  the  other  through  the  nave 
out  of  the  church.  Marguerite  and  the  Catholics 

1  According  to  Mezeray,  it  was  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon  who 
made  the  princess  bow  her  head.  "  It  was  at  this  moment,"  adds 
Mongez,  "  that  the  Duke  de  Guise,  who  had  raised  himself  above  the 
other  nobles  to  watch  the  face  and  eyes  of  Marguerite,  received  such  a 
threatening  glance  from  Charles  IX.  that  he  well-nigh  lost  con- 
sciousness." 

88 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

descended  the  former  to  hear  the  Mass ;  while  the  King 
of  Navarre  and  the  Huguenot  nobles  quitted  the  church 
and  made  their  way  into  the  cloisters  to  wait  until  the 
conclusion  of  the  service. 

Mass  ended,  Marechal  d'Amville  came  to  conduct  the 
King  of  Navarre  back  to  his  wife,  whom  he  embraced  in 
the  presence  of  her  family.1  The  bridal  cortege  then 
returned  to  the  archbishop's  palace,  where  a  superb 
banquet  had  been  prepared,  during  which  heralds-at-arms 
flung  gold  medals  among  the  crowd,  some  of  which  were 
engraven  with  the  initials  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom, 
interlaced  and  encircled  by  the  motto  :  "  Constricta  hoc 
discordia  vinclo  "  ;  while  others  bore  a  lamb  and 'a  cross, 
with  the  device  :  "  Vobis  annuntio  pacem." 

When  the  Court  returned  to  the  Louvre,  the  people 
were  more  demonstrative  than  they  had  been  earlier  in 
the  day.  But  the  applause  was  not  for  the  bridal  pair, 
nor  for  the  King  of  France  ;  it  was  for  the  idol  of  the 
Parisian  populace,  the  Due  de  Guise,  who  bowed  and 
smiled  repeatedly  in  .response  to  the  acclamations  of  the 
mob. 

On  his  arrival  at  the  palace,  the  king  held  a  Court  and 
was  extremely  gracious  to  all  who  presented  themselves, 
notably  to  the  deputations  from  the  Parlement  and 
public  bodies  of  the  city,  who  came  to  offer  him  their 
felicitations  on  his  sister's  marriage.  In  the  evening, 
there  was  a  grand  ball,  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Louvre, 

1  As  they  re-entered  the  church,  d'Amville  pointed  out  to  Coligny  the 
standards  captured  from  the  Protestants  at  Jarnac  and  Montcentour, 
which  hung  from  the  arches  of  the  cathedral.  "  Those  are  mournful 
trophies,"  remarked  the  Admiral,  with  a  smile  ;  "  but  they  will  soon 
give  place  to  others  more  agreeable  to  us  ; "  the  allusion  being  to  those 
which  he  hoped  to  capture  from  the  Spaniards,  in  Flanders. 

89 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

which  was  attended  by  all  the  rank  and  beauty  of  France 
The  famous  squadron  of  the  Queen-Mother's  maids-of- 
honour  was  in  full  force,  and  their  combined  charms 
quite  overcame  the  Legate,  who  exclaimed  to  the  King  of 
Navarre  :  "  Cest  bien  k  plus  gracieux  escadron  du  monde" 
"  Et  le  plus  dangereux,  Monseigneur"  replied  the  Bearnais, 
laughing.  The  ball  was  succeeded  by  a  ballet,  a  form  of 
entertainment  which  in  those  days  had  all  the  charm  of 
novelty.  Three  chariots,  entered  "in  the  shape  of  rocks 
of  silver,"  full  of  musicians  ;  on  one  was  the  celebrated 
singer  Etienne  Leroy,  who  delighted  the  company  with 
his  melodious  voice.  Other  chariots  contained  niches 
"  formed  by  four  columns  of  silver  and  containing  a 
divinity  of  the  seas  "  ;  while  others  again  represented  sea- 
lions,  "  the  body  ending  in  a  fish's  tail,  which  bore  other 
divinities  dressed  in  cloth-of-gold  and  seated  on  silver 
shells."  Finally,  appeared  a  gilded  hippopotamus,  on  the 
tail  of  which  sat  the  King  himself,  attired  as  Neptune 
with  his  trident  in  his  hand  ;  while  the  King  of  Navarre 
and  the  Princes  of  the  Blood  were  distributed  among  the 
other  chariots.  All  these  chariots  traversed  the  great  hall 
of  the  Louvre,  and  when  they  stopped,  musicians  sang 
verses  composed  by  the  best  poets  in  the  service  of  the 
court. * 

On  the  morrow,  August  19,  the  Court  proceeded  to 
the  Hotel  d'Anjou,  where  the  King  of  Navarre  had 
caused  a  magnificent  banquet  to  be  prepared,  at  the 
conclusion  of  which  it  returned  to  the  Louvre,  for  a 
second  ball,  which  lasted  until  a  late  hour.  On  the 
Wednesday,  there  was  an  allegorical  entertainment, 
devised  by  the  Duke  d'Anjou  at  the  Hotel  du  Petit 

Mongez,  H'utoire  de  Marguerite  de  Pa/ait. 
90 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Bourbon,1  which  aroused  a  good  deal  of  comment. 
"  In  the  hall  of  the  palace,  a  paradise  or  heaven  had 
been  constructed,  the  entrance  to  which  was  defended 
by  the  King  and  his  two  brothers,  fully  armed.  On  the 
other  side  was  hell,  in  which  there  were  many  devils 
and  little  imps  making  a  racket  and  playing  monkey- 
tricks,  and  a  great  wheel,  entirely  surrounded  by  little 
wheels,  revolving  in  the  said  hell.  A  river,  traversed  by 
Charon's  bark,  separated  hell  from  paradise.  Beyond 
the  latter  were  the  Elysian  Fields,  represented  by  a  garden 
adorned  by  foliage  and  all  kinds  of  flowers,  surmounted 
by  the  empyrean  heaven,  that  is  to  say  a  wheel  bearing 
the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  the  seven  planets,  and 
an  infinitude  of  little  crystal  stars.  The  wheel  was  in 
continual  motion  and  caused  also  the  revolution  of  the 
paradise,  in  which  there  were  twelve  nymphs  simply 
attired.  Several  knight-errants,  led  by  the  King  of 
Navarre,  presented  themselves  and  endeavoured  to  fight 
their  way  into  paradise  and  carry  off  the  nymphs.  But 
the  three  knights  who  guarded  its  entrance  repulsed 
them.  The  latter,  having  broken  their  lances  and  fought 
for  some  time  with  their  swords,  precipitated  them  into 
Tartarus,  where  they  were  dragged  away  by  the  devils 
and  furies.  The  combat  lasted  until  the  attacking 
knights  had  been  led  away  and  imprisoned  in  hell.  Then 
Mercury  and  Cupid  descended  from  heaven,  and  made  the 
air  resound  with  their  songs.  Mercury  was  represented 
by  Etienne  Leroy,  the  celebrated  singer.  Having  reached 

1  The  H6tel,  or  Palais,  du  Petit-Bourbon,  which  had  been  built  by 
Charles  V.,  was  situated  between  the  Louvre  and  the  Church  of  Saint- 
Germain-l'Auxerrois.  It  was  partially  demolished  in  1653,  though  the 
last  buildings,  which  were  used  by  the  Garde-Meuble,  remained  standing 
for  nearly  a  century  longer. 

9* 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

the  earth,  they  approached  the  guardians  of  paradise, 
felicitated  them  on  their  victory,  and  ascended  once  more 
to  heaven.  The  knights  went  to  seek  the  nymphs  and 
performed  with  them,  around  a  fountain  which  occupied 
the  middle  of  the  hall,  a  variety  of  dances,  which  lasted 
more  than  an  hour.  After  this,  they  yielded  to  the 
prayers  of  the  assembly  and  delivered  the  imprisoned 
knights,  fought  pell-mell  with  them,  and  broke  their 
lances.  The  whole  hall  was  filled  with  the  sparks  and 
flames  which  spurted  forth  from  the  shock  of  their 
weapons.  But  soon  a  great  explosion  was  heard,  accom- 
panied by  a  whirlwind  of  flame,  which,  in  a  short 
while,  consumed  all  the  scenery  and  brought  this  Gothic 
spectacle  to  a  close."  1 

The  festivities  terminated  on  Thursday,  August  21, 
by  a  grand  tournament  in  front  of  the  Louvre.  On  one 
side  appeared  Charles  IX.  and  his  two  brothers,  and  the 
Dues  de  Guise  and  d'Aumale,  disguised  as  Amazons  ; 
on  the  other,  the  King  of  Navarre  and  several  nobles  of 
his  suite,  dressed  in  Turkish  costume,  in  robes  of  rich 
brocade,  with  turbans  on  their  heads.  The  three  queens 
and  the  Court  watched  the  combat  from  balconies  erected 
on  either  side  of  the  lists. 

1  Mongez,  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Valois. 


CHAPTER    VII 

Suspicions  and  uneasiness  of  the  Huguenots — Coligny  is 
strongly  urged  to  leave  Paris,  but  is  deaf  to  all  appeals — 
Catherine  determines  to  remove  the  Admiral  from  her  path — 
Her  coadjutors — Her  object — Attempted  assassination  of 
Coligny — Indignation  of  Charles  IX. — The  Huguenots, 
exasperated,  indulge  in  rash  and  threatening  demonstrations 
— Catherine,  fearful  of  her  guilt  being  brought  home  to  her, 
determines  on  a  massacre  of  the  Protestant  chiefs — Arguments 
by  which  she  succeeds  in  obtaining  the  consent  of  the  King, 
which  is  given  "  on  condition  that  not  one  Huguenot  should 
be  left  alive  to  reproach  him" — Preparations  for  the  massacre — 
Marguerite  de  Valois's  account  of  the  night  of  August  23-24, 
1572 — The  lives  of  Henri  of  Navarre  and  the  Prince  de 
Conde  are  spared,  on  condition  of  their  renouncing  their 
faith — Magnanimous  conduct  of  Marguerite  in  refusing  the 
Queen-Mother's  offer  to  procure  the  annulment  of  her 
marriage. 

THE  part  allotted  to  the  King  of  Navarre  and  his  friends 
in  the  mythological  allegory  at  the  Hotel  du  Petit-Bour- 
bon had  caused  much  unfavourable  comment  among  the 
Huguenots  ;  some  regarded  it  as  an  insult ;  others — it  was 
a  superstitious  age — as  an  evil  omen.  The  Calvinists, 
moreover,  felt  ill  at  ease  in  the  midst  of  a  city  so  fiercely 
hostile  to  them,  and  which,  even  on  the  occasion  of  the 
recent  marriage,  had  scarcely  troubled  to  disguise  its 
animosity ;  while  the  more  clear-sighted  of  them  feared 
the  resentment  of  Catherine,  who  had  the  mortification  of 
seeing  her  once  undisputed  influence  over  her  feeble  son 

93 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

altogether  overshadowed  by  that  of  Coligny,  becoming 
each  day  more  firmly  established  in  the  King's  favour  and 
more  completely  master  of  his  mind.  Suspicion  and  dis- 
trust were  everywhere.  Marechal  de  Montmorency,  who, 
though  a  Catholic,  was  so  closely  in  sympathy  with  his 
kinsman  Coligny  as  to  be  generally  regarded  as  his  ally, 
pleaded  illness  and  retired  to  Chantilly.  Not  a  few  of 
the  more  prudent  Huguenots  followed  his  example.  One 
of  these,  Montferrand  by  name,  who  was  commonly 
accounted  half-witted,  took  leave  of  the  Admiral  with 
the  following  words  ;  "  I  am  going,  because  of  the  good 
cheer  they  are  giving  you.  I  prefer  to  be  classed  with 
madmen  than  with  fools  ;  you  can  cure  the  one,  but  not 
the  other."  l 

Coligny,  indeed,  received  repeated  warnings  and  was 
strongly  urged  to  leave  Paris ;  but,  though  he  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  aware  of  the  danger  of  his  position,  he 
was  deaf  to  all  appeals.  To  quit  the  field  at  such  a 
moment  was  to  lose  it,  and  he  had  far  too  much  at 
stake.  Although,  on  August  9,  the  Council  had  pro- 
nounced uncompromisingly  against  a  breach  with  Spain, 
and  the  King  had  sided  with  it,  the  Admiral  had  not 
ceased  his  preparations  for  assisting  the  revolted  Nether- 
lands. Three  thousand  Huguenots  were  already  on 
the  frontier  ;  twelve  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand 
horse  were  being  raised.  Should  this  formidable  army 
once  enter  Spanish  territory,  it  would  be  hard  indeed  for 
Charles  to  disavow  the  action  of  his  subjects,  and  a 
declaration  of  war  on  the  part  of  Spain  would  almost 
certainly  follow. 

And  Catherine  knew  this — knew,  too,  that  war  would 
render  Coligny  indispensable,  both  as  statesman  and 

1  D'Aubign6,  Histoire  universd/e,  iii.  303. 
94 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

soldier,  and  reduce  her  own  waning  influence  to  vanish- 
ing point.  Tortured  by  jealousy  and  hatred  of  this 
redoubtable  rival,  with  whom  she  was  determined  never 
to  share  the  government,  she  decided  to  take  the  only 
sure  means  of  removing  him  from  her  path.  And  that 
means  was  assassination ;  a  practice  which  had  become 
terribly  rife  since  the  beginning  of  the  civil  wars  and  the 
spread  of  Italian  manners,  and  no  longer  excited  the 
reprobation  it  had  evoked  in  less  troublous  times. 
"  People  kept  assassins  in  their  pay  as  they  kept  servants  : 
the  Guises  had  them,  the  Chatillons  had  them,  the  kings 
had  them ;  all  those  who  could  afford  the  expense  had 
them,  and  these  assassins  were  seldom  or  ever  punished." l 
Who  her  coadjutors  were  is  somewhat  doubtful ;  while 
the  identity  of  the  person  chosen  for  the  dastardly  deed 
is  also  a  matter  for  dispute.  The  Venetian  Ambassador, 
Michieli,  declares  that  the  affair  was  concerted  by  the 
Queen-Mother  and  Anjou  alone ;  but  almost  all  other 
writers,  both  contemporary  and  modern,  are  convinced 
that  the  Guises  were  parties  to  the  crime,  though  there  is 
some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  the  Duchesse  de 
Nemours,  the  widow  of  Francois  de  Lorraine,  was  impli- 
cated. It  is  also  probable  that  Catherine's  confidants, 
Retz,  Nevers,  Birague,  and  Tavannes,  were  in  the  secret 
as  well.  As  for  the  assassin,  his  name  is  variously  given 
as  B6me,  a  Bohemian  in  the  service  of  the  Guises ; 
Maurevert,  or  Maurevel,  a  gentleman  of  experience  in 
this  metier^  a  dependent  of  the  same  family,  and  Tosinghi, 
a  Florentine  soldier  of  fortune,  a  creature  of  Catherine 
and  Anjou.  Berne  is  indicated  by  the  Florentine  Ambas- 

1  The  foreign  Ambassadors  kept  them,  also,  for  the  purpose  of  making 
away  with  political  refugees  from  their  own  countries  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  France. 

95 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

sador,  Petrucci,  and  Tosinghi  by  Michieli,  but  the  weight 
of  evidence  seems  to  point  to  Maurevert. 

What  did  Catherine  hope  would  be  the  immediate 
result  of  the  Admiral's  death,  besides  the  removal  of  a 
rival  influence  to  her  own  ?  Undoubtedly,  she  anticipated 
a  rising  of  all  the  Huguenots  then  in  Paris  and  a  san- 
guinary fracas  between  them  and  the  Guise  faction  ;  for 
Guise,  whose  undying  hatred  of  Coligny  was  common 
knowledge,  notwithstanding  their  formal  reconciliation, 
would  certainly  be  suspected  of  the  crime.  Whatever 
the  outcome  of  such  an  encounter  might  be,  it  could  not 
fail  to  materially  strengthen  the  hands  of  her  own  party  ; 
for  both  factions  would  emerge  from  it  with  severe  losses. 
If,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  she  could  rid  herself  of 
both  Coligny  and  Guise,  to  say  nothing  of  a  few  of  the 
lesser  lights  of  either  party,  the  step  she  contemplated 
would,  indeed,  be  a  master-stroke  of  diplomacy  !  In  any 
case,  Catherine's  attempt  upon  the  Admiral's  life  proves 
conclusively,  in  the  opinion  of  all  impartial  historians, 
that  the  terrible  tragedy  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  was 
in  no  sense  premeditated,  but  was  the  result  of  a  sudden 
resolution,  forced  upon  her,  as  we  shall  show,  by  the 
failure  of  the  lesser  crime.  "  Why  kill  the  chief  before 
the  general  massacre  ? "  asks  Merimee,  very  pertinently. 
"  Would  not  such  a  step  be  calculated  to  alarm  the 
Huguenots  and  put  them  on  their  guard  ? " 

On  Friday,  August  22,  between  ten  and  eleven  in  the 
morning,  Coligny,  after  attending  the  Council,  was  pass- 
ing, on  foot,  through  the  Rue  des  Poulies,  on  his  way  to 
his  lodging,1  accompanied,  by  about  a  dozen  Huguenot 

1  It  still  appears  to  be  the  belief  of  most  writers  that  the  house  occu- 
pied by  Coligny  was  in  the  Rue  de  B6thisy,  next  the  corner  formed  by 
that  street  and  the  Rue  de  1'Arbre  Sec.  But  M.  Fournier,  in  his  Parti 

96 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

gentlemen,  when  an  arquebus  was  fired  from  the  window 
of  a  house  in  the  cloisters  of  Saint-Germain-rAuxerrois.1 
One  ball  broke  the  forefinger  of  his  right  hand,  while  the 
same  missile  or  another  entered  at  the  wrist  of  his  left 
arm  and  passed  out  at  the  elbow.  The  assassin,  who, 
following  the  example  of  Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh, 
the  murderer  of  the  Regent  Murray,  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  have  a  fleet  horse  in  readiness  at  the  back  of 
the  house,  immediately  took  to  flight  and  galloped  off 
through  the  Porte  Saint-Antoine  into  the  open  country  ; 
the  fact  that  none  of  the  Admiral's  following  were 
mounted,  rendering  pursuit  hopeless  ;  while  Coligny 
was  assisted  to  his  lodging,  and  the  famous  surgeon 
Ambroise  Pare  summoned. 

Charles  X.  was  playing  tennis  at  the  Louvre  with  the 
Due  de  Guise  and  Teligny,  the  Admiral's  son-in-law, 
when  news  of  the  attempted  assassination  was  brought 
him.  In  a  transport  of  fury,  he  dashed  his  racket  to  the 
ground,  exclaiming  :  "  Mort  de  Dieu  !  when  shall  I  have 
a  moment's  peace  ? "  and  went  to  his  room  "  with  sad 
and  downcast  countenance ; "  upon  which  Guise,  well 
knowing  that  suspicion  would  point  to  him  as  the  author 
of  the  crime,  promptly  disappeared,  and  remained  in  con- 
cealment for  the  rest  of  the  day. 

After  dinner,  Charles,  accompanied  by  the  Queen- 
Mother  and  her  allies,  Retz,  Nevers,  Birague,  and 
Tavannes,  went  to  visit  the  Admiral.  " Mon  fire"  said 
the  King,  **  the  pain  is  yours,  but  the  despite  is  mine  ; " 

demoli,  maintains  that  it  was  in  the  Rue  dcs  Foss6s-Saint-Germain 
1'Auxerrois,  of  which  the  Rue  de  Bethisy  was  a  continuation,  at  the 
Hotel  de  Ponthieu. 

1  The  house  was  tenanted  by  Piles  de  Villemar,  a  canon  of  Notre- 
Dame,  and  formerly  tutor  to  the  Due  de  Guise. 

97  o 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

and  he  vowed  to  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  discover  the 
authors  of  the  outrage  and  mete  out  to  them  the  most 
exemplary  punishment.  He  nominated  a  commission  of 
inquiry,  begged  the  Admiral  to  remove  to  the  Louvre, 
where  the  apartments  of  the  Duchess  of  Lorraine  should 
be  placed  at  his  disposal,  and  when  the  surgeons  forbade 
this,  sent  a  detachment  of  guards  to  protect  him,  and 
subsequently  fifty  arquebusiers,  under  Cosseins,  who,  two 
days  later,  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  murder  ot 
Coligny.  Finally,  he  assigned  quarters  to  a  number 
of  the  Protestant  nobles  in  the  Rue  de  Bethisy,  where 
the  Catholics  were  ordered  to  surrender  their  houses  to 
them  ;  invited  the  King  of  Navarre  and  Conde  to  summon 
their  intimate  friends  to  the  Louvre,  and  requested  the 
former  to  send  some  of  his  Swiss  guards  to  Coligny's  house. 
But  all  this  did  not  allay  the  anger  and  excitement 
of  the  Huguenots.  The  dastardly  attempt  upon  their 
leader's  life  had  roused  them  to  the  last  pitch  of  exaspera- 
tion. They  openly  accused  the  Guises  of  the  crime, 
paraded  in  crowds  before  the  Hotel  de  Guise,  brandish- 
ing their  swords  and  shouting  anathemas,  and  insulted 
and  beat  any  of  the  duke's  people  whom  they  found  in  the 
streets.  Armand  de  Piles  entered  the  Louvre,  at  the 
head  of  four  hundred  gentlemen,  demanding  instant 
vengeance  on  the  assassin.  The  King  of  Navarre  and 
Conde  supported  his  demand  and  announced  their  inten- 
tion of  quitting  Paris,  if  it  were  not  complied  with.  Soon 
it  began  to  be  whispered  that  Catherine  and  Anjou  had 
been  parties  to  the  outrage.1  A  body  of  Huguenots 
presented  themselves  before  the  King  and  Queen-Mother 
while  at  supper,  and  indulged  in  the  most  threatening 

1  The  would-be  assassin's  arquebus,  which  he  left  behind  him,   was 
found  to  belong  to  one  of  Anjou's  guards. 

98 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

language.  The  elder  Pardaillan,1  addressing  Catherine, 
declared  that  if  justice  were  not  done,  the  Calvinists 
would  execute  it  themselves ;  while  another  of  their 
leaders  said  to  the  King,  alluding  to  the  Admiral's 
wound,  that  it  was  an  arm  which  would  cost  more  than 
forty  thousand  arms. 

That  afternoon,  and  again  early  on  the  following 
morning,  a  meeting  of  the  Huguenot  chiefs  was  held  at 
Coligny's  house,  in  a  room  beneath  that  in  which  the 
Admiral  was  lying.  The  Vidame  de  Chartres  and  the 
minister  Merlin  urged  that  they  should  withdraw  at  once 
from  Paris,  taking  their  wounded  leader  with  them.2 
But  T£ligny,  acting  no  doubt  on  instructions  from  his 
father-in-law,  strongly  opposed  such  a  step,  declaring 
that  he  himself  would  answer  for  the  good  faith  of  the 
King,  and  eventually  his  counsels  carried  the  day.  It 
was,  however,  decided  to  go  in  a  body  to  the  Louvre  on 
the  Sunday  morning,  to  formally  accuse  the  Due  de 
Guise  as  the  instigator  of  the  crime,  a  resolution  which 
came  to  the  Queen-Mother's  ears. 

Catherine  and  Anjou  were  terrified.  Their  machina- 
tions had  recoiled  upon  their  own  heads  ;  Coligny  would 
most  certainly  recover  from  his  wound,  and  would 
become  more  powerful  than  ever;  while  their  own 
complicity  in  the  affair  was  within  an  ace  of  being  dis- 
covered. If  an  inquiry  were  instituted,  it  was  probable 
that  Guise  would  not  care  to  deny  his  complicity  in  an 
act  which  would  greatly  enhance  his  popularity  among 

1  Hector  Pardaillan,  Baron  de  Gondrin  and  de  Montespan,  from  whom 
the  Marquis  de  Montespan,  the  husband  of  Louis  XIV. 's  celebrated 
mistress,  traced  his  descent.  He  was  killed  at  the  Louvre  in  the  massacre 
of  the  following  Sunday. 

2  Marechal  de  Montmorency  had  written  offering  to  come  himself, 
with  five  hundred  horse,  to  escort  Coligny  to  La  Rochelle. 

99 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

the  mob,  but  would  seek  to  shelter  himself,  by  pleading 
the  orders  of  Anjou,  Lieutenant-General  of  the  realm,  and 
their  guilt  once  publicly  brought  home  to  them,  nothing 
could  save  them  from  disgrace  and  exile,  if  not  from  a 
worse  fate. 

It  was  necessary  to  act  and  to  act  at  once.  Without 
a  moment's  delay,  Catherine  called  her  advisers  together 
— her  three  Italian  favourites,  Retz,  Nevers,  and  Birague, 
the  unworthy  successor  of  1'Hopital  in  the  office  of 
Chancellor,  and  Tavannes — in  the  garden  of  the  Tuileries, 
then  outside  the  city  walls;  and  there  she  and  Anjou 
concerted  with  them  the  plan  of  a  massacre  of  the 
Huguenot  chiefs,  beginning  with  Coligny,  in  which 
affair  Guise  should  again  be  made  to  figure  as  the 
principal  agent. 

But  to  plot  and  plan  were  useless,  unless  they  could 
obtain  the  consent  of  the  King — that  feeble,  neurotic, 
passionate,  though  well-meaning  creature,  "  half  beast  and 
wholly  a  child,"  who  was  seldom  for  two  days  together  of 
the  same  mind.  Great  as  was  still  Catherine's  influence 
over  her  son,  she  was  very  doubtful  whether  it  would  be 
sufficient  to  induce  him  to  execute  so  complete  a  volte-face^ 
since  it  appears  to  have  been  late  in  the  afternoon  ere  she 
ventured  to  approach  him.  Even  then,  if  we  are  to 
believe  Marguerite,  who,  however,  knew  nothing  of  the 
plot,  and  is  only  repeating  what  she  was  subsequently 
told,  the  Queen- Mother  did  not  herself  broach  the 
matter  to  the  King,  but  sent  Retz,  "from  whom  she 
knew  he  would  take  it  better  than  any  one  else,"  to  pave 
the  way.  Retz  proceeded  to  explain  that  the  King  was 
in  error  in  supposing  that  the  attempt  against  the 
Admiral  had  been  instigated  by  the  Due  de  Guise  alone, 
since  the  Queen-Mother  and  his  brother  Anjou  had  been 


100 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

partners  in  the  affair  ;  that  their  complicity  was  already 
suspected,  while  his  Majesty  himself  was  believed  to  have 
been  a  consenting  party  to  thedeed,and  that  the  Huguenots, 
beside  themselves  with  fury,  intended  to  have  resort  to 
arms  that  very  night.     Marguerite's  account  lacks  con- 
firmation— the  most  dependable  witnesses,  such  as  Anjou 
and  the  Venetian  Ambassadors,  Michieli  and  Cavalli,  make 
no   mention   of  this   interview ;  but   there   can   be    no 
question  that  when  Catherine  did  approach  her  son,  she 
admitted  the  part  which  she  and  Anjou  had  taken  in  the 
attempted  assassination  of  Coligny,  and  pointed  out  the 
danger   which    threatened,    not    only   his    mother    and 
brother,   but   himself,   from    the    exasperation    of    the 
Admiral's  followers,  to  which    their  rash   and   warlike 
demonstration  on  the  previous  day,  their  menaces,  and 
their  numbers  gave  only  too  much  colour.     Then,  with 
diabolical  ingenuity,  she  proceeded  to  recall  to  Charles's 
mind  all  the  insults  and  injuries,  real  and  imaginary,  he 
had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Huguenots  in  general 
and  Coligny  in  particular ;  of  their  attempt  to  seize  his 
person  at  Monceaux,  and  his  humiliating  flight  to  Paris 
before  Coligny's  cavalry  ;  of  the  weeks  during  which  he 
had  vainly  besieged  his  own  town  of  Saint-Jean-d'Angely  ; 
of  the  slaying  of  his  faithful  servant  Charry,  by  Coligny's 
friends  upon  the  Pont  Saint-Michel,  nine  years  before,  and 
of  the  horrible  atrocities  committed  on   his  defenceless 
subjects  by  the  German  mercenaries  whom  the  Huguenots 
had  called  to  their  aid.     She  declared  it  to  be  the  belief 
of  all  Catholic  France  that  he  had  allowed   his  royal 
authority  to  be  usurped  by  the  Admiral,  and  taunted 
him  with   being   but  a   mere   tool  in  the  hands  of  an 
arrogant  and  ambitious  heretic,  who  carried  his  insolence 
so  far  as  to  threaten  the  King  with  a  renewal  of  the 

101 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

civil  war,  if  he  declined,  at  his  bidding,  to  break  with 
Spain.1 

She  insisted,  and  she  called  others  to  prove,  that  the 
Huguenots  were  already  plotting  ;  that  Coligny  had  sent 
to  Germany  to  raise  10,000  of  the  dreaded  Reiters,  and 
to  the  Protestant  Cantons  of  Switzerland  for  a  levy  of 
10,000  pike-men;  that  some  of  the  Huguenot  leaders 
had  left  Paris  to  raise  the  kingdom,  and  that  the  time 
and  place  of  their  assembling  had  already  been  decided  ; 
that  the  Catholic  leaders,  exasperated  in  their  turn,  and 
despairing  of  any  resolute  action  on  the  part  of  the  King, 
had  met  and  resolved  to  form  an  offensive  and  defensive 
league,  and  to  appoint  a  captain-general,  a  course  which 
would,  in  all  likelihood,  eventually  end  in  his  Majesty's 
deposition  in  favour  of  the  Due  de  Guise.  Finally,  she 
showed  that  out  of  the  peril  which  menaced  them  there 
was  but  one  way  of  escape  :  to  strike  first  and  anticipate 
the  designs  of  the  Huguenots,  by  putting  Coligny  and  the 
other  leaders  to  death — there  is  no  evidence  that  Catherine, 
at  first,  intended  anything  like  a  general  massacre 2 
— now  that  he  had  them  in  his  grip,  "  gathered 

1  When,  on  August  9,  the  Council,  largely  through  the  influence  of 
Catherine,  had  decided  against  war,  Coligny,  turning  to  the  Queen- 
Mother,  exclaimed  :  **  Madame,  the  King  refuses  to  enter  on  one  war  ; 
God  grant  that  another  may  not  befall  him,  from  which  perhaps  he  will 
not  have  it  in  his  power  to  withdraw  ! "  The  Admiral's  enemies  were 
not  slow  to  interpret  these  words  as  a  threat  of  civil  war  ;  but,  as 
Coligny's  English  biographer,  Mr.  A,  W.  Whitehead,  points  out,  it  was 
probably  merely  intended  as  a  warning  that  William  of  Orange  and  his 
followers  would  be  thrown  back  on  France,  and  that  it  would  need  force 
to  dislodge  them. 

1  Anjou  says  that  she  declared  that  "  it  would  be  sufficient  to  kill  the 
Admiral,  chief  and  author  of  all  the  civil  wars,  and  that  the  Catholics, 
satisfied  and  contented  wish  the  sacrifice  of  two  or  three  men,  would  remain 
in  their  obedience." 

lot 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

together  and  shut  up,  as  in  a  cage,  within  the  walls  of 
Paris."1 

For  over  an  hour  Catherine  reasoned  and  implored  in 
vain.  "  The  Queen  my  mother,"  writes  Marguerite, 
"  had  never  experienced  so  much  difficulty  as  in  per- 
suading the  King  that  this  counsel  had  been  given  for  the 
good  of  his  realm,  because  of  the  friendship  he  bore 
M.  1'Amiral,  La  Noue,2  and  Teligny."  But  the  struggle 
was  an  unequal  one.  The  unhappy  King  was  completely 
unstrung  by  the  events  of  the  preceding  day,  exhausted 
from  want  of  sleep,  and  in  no  condition  to  resist  the 
importunities  of  the  woman,  obedience  to  whom  was  still 
with  him  almost  second  nature.  Slowly  but  surely 
Catherine  wore  him  down,  and,  on  a  sudden,  honour, 
compassion,  every  consideration  which  might  have  helped 
to  deter  him  were  forgotten,  and  he  was  seized  by  an  un- 
governable frenzy.  "  We  then  perceived  in  him  a  strange 
mutation,  a  marvellous  and  astonishing  metamorphosis. 
Rising  and  imposing  silence  upon  us,  he  swore,  by  God's 
death,  that,  since  we  would  have  the  Admiral  killed,  he 
gave  his  consent,  on  condition  that  every  other  Huguenot 
in  France  was  put  to  death  as  well,  so  that  not  one  should 
be  left  to  reproach  him,  and  he  bade  us  hasten."  2 

The  preparations  for  the  sanguinary  drama  were  soon 
made.  Nothing,  indeed,  was  more  easy  to  concert,  since 

1  Giovanni  Michieli,  Relazione  della  Corte  di  Francia, 

2  Marguerite  forgets  that  La  Noue  was  not  in  Paris  at  this  time,  but 
shut  up  with  Louis  of  Nassau  in  Mons. 

3  Discours  du  roy  Henri  III.  in  the  Mtmoires  etEtat  de  PiHercy.     By 
an  inversion  of  the  usual  order  of  things,  the  authenticity  of  this  evidence, 
which  was  first  published  in  1623,  is  disputed  by  several  seventeenth-  and 
eighteenth-century  historians,  P£refixe,  Mercier,  H£nault,  Millot,  and 
Voltaire,  but  accepted  by  the  majority  of  modern  authorities  on  the 
period. 

103 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

it  coincided  with  the  desires  of  the  population  of  Paris, 
ready  to  rise  spontaneously  against  the  detested  heretics. 
Marcel  and  Charron,  the  former  and  present  Provost  of 
the  Merchants,  were  summoned  to  the  Louvre,  and  asked 
how  many  men  they  could  provide  for  the  service  of  the 
king  at  a  few  hours  notice.  They  answered,  some  twenty 
thousand.  They  were  then  informed,  under  a  pledge  of 
the  strictest  secrecy,  that  a  Huguenot  conspiracy  had 
been  discovered,  and  that,  in  order  to  frustrate  it,  they 
were  to  summon  the  city  militia  and  every  man  whom 
they  could  raise  to  assemble  at  midnight  before  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  where  they  would  receive  further  instruc- 
tions.1 Every  man  was  to  wear  a  white  linen  sleeve  on 
his  left  arm  and  a  white  cross  on  his  hat,  and  a  light  was 
to  be  placed  in  each  window.  The  gates  were  to  be 
locked  and  guarded,  the  chain,  which  guarded  the 
approach  to  the  bridges  raised,  and  all  boats  securely 
fastened  to  the  banks,  so  that  no  one  might  cross  the 
river.  To  Guise,  assisted  by  d'Aumale  and  Henri 
d'Angoule'me,  was  entrusted  the  supreme  task  of  slaying 
the  Admiral,  which  accomplished,  the  bell  of  the  Palais  de 
Justice  was  to  give  the  signal  for  the  general  massacre  to 
begin." a 

1  "  These  orders,"  writes  Giovanni  Michieli,  "  were  executed  with 
the  greatest  diligence  and  the  utmost  secrecy,  to  such  a  degree  that  every 
one  was  in  ignorance  as  to  what  his  neighbour  was  doing,  and,  since  no 
one  was  able  to  ascertain  for  what  purpose  the  orders  had  been  issued, 
each  was  so  much  more  attentive  to  what  was  about  to  happen." — 
Relazione  della  Corte  di  Francia.  \ 

2  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Catherine,  fearing  that  at  the  last  moment 
Charles  might  revoke  the  consent  she  had  succeeded  in  wringing  from 
him,  gave  orders,  just  before  daybreak,  for  the  bell  of  Saint-Germain- 
PAuxerrois   to   sound   the   tocsin,   instead    of  that  of  the    Palais  de 
Justice. 

104 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

What  followed  has  been  told  so  often  that  it  is  needless 
to  recapitulate  it  here,  and  we  shall  therefore  confine  our- 
selves to  allowing  Marguerite,  "/£  grand,  le  veritable 
historien  de  la  Saint-Barthelemy"  to  relate  her  own  expe- 
rience of  that  awful  night : 

"  As  for  me,  no  one  told  me  anything  of  all  this.  I 
saw  that  every  one  was  in  a  state  of  excitement.  The 
Huguenots  regarded  me  with  suspicion,  because  I  was  a 
Catholic,  and  the  Catholics,  because  I  had  married  the 
King  of  Navarre,  who  was  Huguenot.  So  that  no  one 
said  anything  to  me  until  the  evening,  when,  being  present 
at  the  coucher  of  the  Queen  my  mother,  seated  on  a  chest 
by  the  side  of  my  sister  of  Lorraine,1  who,  I  saw,  was 
very  sad,  the  Queen  my  mother,  while  speaking  to  some 
one,  perceived  me  and  told  me  to  go  to  bed.  As  I  was 
making  my  curtsey,  my  sister  takes  me  by  the  arm,  and, 
oursting  into  tears,  exclaims  :  *  £Mon  Dieu>  my  sister,  do 
not  go  ! '  which  frightened  me  extremely.  The  Queen  my 
mother  perceived  it,  and  calling  my  sister,  scolded  her 
soundly,  and  forbade  her  to  tell  me  anything.  My  sister 
replied  that  it  was  unseemly  to  send  me  to  be  sacrificed 
like  that,  and  that,  without  doubt,  if  they  discovered 
anything,  they  would  avenge  themselves  on  me.  The 
Queen  my  mother  replied  that,  if  it  pleased  God,  I 
should  suffer  no  harm ;  but  that,  however  that  might  be, 
it  was  necessary  for  me  to  go,  *  for  fear,  if  I  stayed,  that 
they  should  suspect  something  .  .  .  I  perceived  that 
they  were  arguing,  but  could  not  understand  what  they 
said.  She  (the  Queen- Mother)  again  commanded  me 
angrily  to  go  to  bed.  My  sister,  melting  to  tears,  bade 
me  good-night,  without  daring  to  say  anything  further ; 
and  I  departed,  all  frightened  and  bewildered,  without 
1  Claude  de  Valois,  Duchess  of  Lorraine. 
105 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

knowing  what  I  had  to  fear.  So  soon  as  I  reached  my 
cabinet,  I  began  to  pray  to  God  that  it  would  please  Him 
to  take  me  under  His  protection  and  to  defend  me, 
without  knowing  from  whom  or  what.  Thereupon,  the 
King,  my  husband,  who  had  retired  to  rest,  told  me  to 
go  to  bed.  This  I  did,  and  found  his  bed  surrounded  by 
thirty  or  forty  Huguenots.  .  .  .  All  night  long  they  did 
nothing  but  talk  about  the  accident  which  had  befallen 
the  Admiral,1  determining,  so  soon  as  it  was  light,  to 
demand  of  the  King  that  M.  de  Guise  should  be  brought 
to  justice,  and  that,  if  this  were  not  granted  them,  to 
execute  it  themselves.  As  for  me,  I  had  always  in  mind 
my  sister's  tears  and  could  not  sleep,  because  of  the  fears 
with  which  she  had  inspired  me,  although  I  knew  not  of 
what.  The  night  passed  in  this  manner,  without  my 
closing  an  eye.  At  daybreak,  the  King  my  husband  told 
me  that  he  would  go  and  play  tennis,  whilst  waiting 
until  King  Charles  should  be  awake,  having  resolved  to 
demand  justice  of  him  at  once.  He  quitted  my 
chamber,  and  all  his  gentlemen  with  him.  I,  perceiving 
that  it  was  daylight,  supposed  that  the  danger  to  which 
my  sister  had  alluded  must  be  past,  and,  being  overcome 
with  fatigue,  told  my  nurse  to  fasten  the  door,  in  order 
that  I  might  sleep  in  peace.  An  hour  later,  as  I  was  fast 
asleep,  comes  a  man,  striking  with  hands  and  feet  at  the 
door,  and  shouting  '  Navarre  !  Navarre !  *  My  nurse, 
imagining  that  it  was  the  King  my  husband,  runs  quickly 
to  the  door.  It  was  M.  de  L£ran,2  who  had  a  sword-cut 

1  It  was  no  doubt  a  large  four-poster  bed,  with  thick  curtains,  which 
enabled  the  King  to  converse  with  his  friends  without  disturbing  her 
Majesty's  privacy. 

1  Brant6me  alludes  to  him  as  Lerac,  wkile  Mongez  calls  him  Tcy- 
ran.  His  real  name  was  Gabriel  de  Levis,  Vicomte  de  Le"ran,  and  he 
was  one  of  the  King  of  Navarre's  equerries.  Alexandre  Dumas,  in  his  „ 

106 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

on  the  elbow  and  a  halberd-wound  in  the  arm,  and  was 
still  pursued  by  four  archers,  who  all  entered  the  room  at 
his  heels.  He,  seeking  to  save  himself,  threw  himself  on 
my  bed.  I,  feeling  that  these  men  had  hold  of  me,  flung 
myself  on  the  ruelle^  and  he  after  me,  still  clasping  me 
across  the  body.  This  man  was  a  total  stranger  to  me, 
and  I  did  not  know  whether  he  came  there  to  insult  me 
or  whether  the  archers  were  against  him  or  against  me. 
We  were  both  of  us  screaming,  and  one  was  just  as 
much  alarmed  as  the  other.  At  last,  God  willed  that 
M.  de  Nan^ay,1  Captain  of  the  Guards,  should  come 
upon  the  scene,  who,  finding  me  in  this  plight,  could  not 
refrain  from  laughing,  notwithstanding  the  compassion 
he  felt  for  me.  He  severely  reprimanded  the  archers  for 
this  indiscretion,  ordered  them  out,  and  granted  me  the 
life  of  the  poor  man  who  was  holding  me,  whom  I  caused 
to  be  put  to  bed  and  to  have  his  wound  dressed  in  my 
cabinet  until  such  time  as  he  was  fully  cured.  Whilst 
I  was  changing  my  nightgown — for  he  had  covered  me 
all  over  with  blood — M.  de  Nan^ay  acquainted  me  with 
all  that  was  happening,  and  assured  me  that  the  King 
my  husband  was  in  the  King's  chamber  and  had  suffered 
no  harm.  Then,  making  me  wrap  myself  in  a  bed-gown, 
he  conducted  me  to  the  chamber  of  my  sister,  Madame 
de  Lorraine,  where  I  arrived  more  dead  than  alive.  As 
we  entered  the  ante-chamber,  the  doors  of  which  were 
all  open,  a  gentleman  named  Bourse  was  run  through 
by  a  halberd  within  three  paces  of  me,  as  he  was  flying 

celebrated  romance,  la  Reine  Margot,  makes  La  M61e,  of  whom  we  shall 
have  something  to  say  in  the  next  chapter,  the  hero  of  this 
adventure. 

1  Gaspard  de  la  Chatre,  Seigneur  de  Nanjay.     He  had  been  Captain 
of  the  Swiss  Guards  since  1568. 

107 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

from  the  archers  who  pursued  him.  I  fell  to  one  side, 
well-nigh  swooning,  into  M.  de  Nan^ay's  arms,  thinking 
that  the  thrust  would  have  impaled  us  both.  When  I 
had  somewhat  recovered,  I  entered  the  little  room  in 
which  my  sister  slept.  Whilst  I  was  there,  M.  de  Miossans, 
first  gentleman  to  the  King  my  husband,  and  Armagnac, 
his  first  valet- de-chambre,  came  in  quest  of  me,  to  implore 
me  to  save  their  lives.  I  went  and  threw  myself  on  my 
knees  before  the  King  and  the  Queen  my  mother,  to 
make  intercession  with  them  for  their  lives,  which  they 
at  length  accorded  me."  1 

Brantome  assures  that  Henri  of  Navarre  himself  owed 
his  life  to  Marguerite's  intercession,  but  most  historians 
are  agreed  that  there  never  was  any  serious  intention  of 
putting  either  the  young  King  or  the  Prince  de  Conde  to 
death,  an  act  which  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
justify.  On  leaving  his  bedchamber,  Henri  and  his 
gentleman  had  been  promptly  arrested  and  conducted 
to  Charles  IX. 's  cabinet,  where  they  found  Conde,  who 
had  been  apprehended  at  the  same  time.  "  Take  that 
canaille  away ! "  cried  Charles  ;  and  the  hapless  followers 
of  Navarre  were  led  out  and  mercilessly  butchered  in  the 
courtyard  of  the  Louvre.  Then  the  King,  who  was  be- 
side himself  with  passion,  informed  the  princes  that  all 
that  was  being  done  was  by  his  orders,  that  they  had 
allowed  themselves  to  be  made  the  leaders  of  his  enemies, 
and  that  lives  were  justly  forfeited.  As,  however,  they 
were  his  kinsmen  and  connections,  he  would  pardon  them, 
if  they  conformed  to  the  religion  of  their  ancestors,  the 
only  one  he  would  henceforth  tolerate  in  his  realm.  If 
not,  they  must  prepare  to  share  the  fate  of  their  friends. 
Cond£  courageously  replied  that  he  refused  to  believe  the 

8  Memoir  et  de  Marguerite  de  Vatoif  (edit.  Guessard). 
1 08 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

King  capable  of  violating  his  most  sacred  pledges,  but 
that  he  was  accountable  for  his  religion  to  God  alone  and 
would  remain  faithful  to  it,  even  if  it  cost  him  his  life. 
Navarre,  of  a  more  politic  and  wary  disposition,  and  be- 
sides, somewhat  indifferent  on  the  subject  of  religion, 
assumed  a  more  humble  and  conciliatory  tone,  begging 
the  King  not  to  compel  him  to  outrage  his  conscience, 
and  to  consider  that  he  was  now  not  only  his  kinsman, 
but  closely  connected  with  him  by  marriage.  Charles, 
after  indulging  in  terrible  threats  against  Conde,  finally 
dismissed  them,  saying  that  he  gave  them  three  days  for 
reflection,  and  directing  that  they  should  be  strictly 
guarded. 

However,  Marguerite  tells  us  that  "  those  who  had 
commenced  these  proceedings  " — by  which  she  means  the 
Guises  and  their  partisans,  though,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
responsibility  really  lay  at  Catherine's  door — were  in- 
dignant at  the  Princes  of  the  Blood  having  been  spared, 
and  "  recognising  that,  as  the  King  of  Navarre  was  my 
husband,  no  one  would  lift  a  hand  against  him,  they  set 
to  work  to  persuade  the  Queen  my  mother  that  my 
marriage  must  be  dissolved/'  Catherine,  for  the  moment, 
at  any  rate,  appears  to  have  lent  a  favourable  ear  to  this 
sinister  suggestion,  and  a  few  days  after  the  massacre, 
when  her  daughter  presented  herself  at  her  lever,  drew 
her  aside  and  commanded  her  to  tell  her  upon  oath — it 
was  a  Saint's  Day  and  the  whole  Royal  Family  were  about 
to  communicate — whether  the  marriage  had  been  con- 
summated, adding  that,  if  it  had  not  been,  she  saw  a 
means  of  having  it  annulled.  But  Marguerite,  although 
she  had  no  love  for  her  husband,  was  far  too  generous- 
hearted  to  deliver  him  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  and 
perceiving  the  snare,  skilfully  avoided  it.  "  I  begged  her 

109 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

to  believe,"  she  writes,  "that  I  was  not  qualified  to 
answer  her  question  ;  but  I  said  that,  whichever  way  it 
was,  as  she  had  placed  me  in  this  position,  I  would  rather 
abide  in  it — strongly  suspecting  that  they  only  desired  to 
separate  me  from  my  husband,  in  order  to  do  him  some 
evil  turn." 


no 


CHAPTER   VIII 

Henri  of  Navarre  and  Conde  renounce  the  Protestant  faith — 
Gregory  XIII.  sends  a  Bull  ratifying  the  marriage  of  Henri  and 
Marguerite — Unenviable  position  of  the  King  of  Navarre — 
He  finds  in  his  wife  a  valuable  ally — The  Court  of  Charles  IX. 
— Henri  and  Marguerite  am  ill-assorted  pair — Reprehensible 
conduct  of  the  King  of  Navarre — Marguerite's  liaison  with  Le 
Mole — Outbreak  of  the  fourth  civil  war — Rapprochement  be- 
tween the  Huguenots  and  the  "  Politiques  " — Discontent  of  Due 
d'Alen9on,  who  becomes  the  secret  head  of  this  confederacy 
— Edict  of  Boulogne  ends  the  fourth  civil  war — Visit  of  the 
Polish  envoys  to  Paris  to  offer  the  crown  of  Poland  to  Anjou — 
Departure  of  Anjou  for  Poland — His  unsuccessful  endeavour 
to  become  reconciled  with  Marguerite. 

THE  conversion  of  the  two  princes  greatly  occupied 
the  Court.  Marguerite,  a  fervent  Catholic,  spared  no 
effort  to  induce  her  husband  to  return  to  the  fold  of  the 
Church,  and  found  zealous  auxiliaries  in  the  Cardinal  de 
Bourbon  and  the  Jesuit  Maldonato,  Queen  Elizabeth's 
confessor,  who  had  been  specially  charged  to  instruct  him. 
The  astute  B£arnais,  who  already  seems  to  have  had  some 
presentiment  of  the  great  part  he  was  one  day  to  play, 
was  not  the  man  to  sacrifice  a  glorious  future  to  his 
attachment  to  the  Reformed  doctrines,  and  accordingly 
feigned  to  lend  an  attentive  ear  to  the  arguments  of  his 
teachers.  Conde  was  the  object  of  like  solicitations,  to 
which,  however,  he  replied  with  anger  and  contempt. 
His  obstinacy  so  enraged  Charles  IX.,  that  one  day,  when 

in 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

the  prince  had  proved  more  than  ordinarily  contumacious, 
he  called  for  a  sword,  vowing  that  he  would  proceed  to 
Conde's  apartments,  with  some  of  his  guards,  and  slay 
him  with  his  own  hand.  Probably,  he  only  intended  to 
intimidate  him  into  submission  ;  but  his  queen,  the  gentle 
and  pious  Elizabeth,  convinced  that  he  was  in  earnest, 
threw  herself  at  his  feet,  and  besought  him  not  to  stain 
his  hands  with  his  kinsman's  blood.  His  Majesty  yielded 
to  his  consort's  entreaties,  and  contented  himself  with 
summoning  Cond6,  and,  when  he  appeared,  shouting  in  a 
voice  of  thunder  :  "  Mass,  death,  or  Bastille !  " 

The  prince  haughtily  refused  the  first  proposition,  but, 
shortly  afterwards,  he  consented  to  abjure,  and  became,  to 
all  appearance,  so  fervent  a  Catholic  that  the  courtiers 
laughingly  declared  that  his  devotion  left  him  no  time  to 
observe  the  love-passages  between  his  wife  and  the  Due 
d'Anjou.  Henri  of  Navarre  also  abjured,  and,  on 
October  3,  1672,  the  two  princes  addressed  to  the  Pope 
a  very  respectful  letter,  begging  him  to  accept  their  sub- 
mission and  admit  them  into  the  fold.  It  was  only  then 
that  Gregory  XIII.  consented  to  send  a  Bull  ratifying 
the  marriage  of  Marguerite  and  Henri.  The  canonical 
irregularities  which  vitiated  it  had  up  to  that  time  ren- 
dered a  dissolution  easy,  which  proves  once  more  that  it 
depended  entirely  on  Marguerite  whether  it  should  be 
pronounced. 

Notwithstanding  their  abjuration,  Henri  and  Cond6 
were  still  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  remained  in  a 
sort  of  quasi-captivity.  Their  position,  particularly  that 
of  the  young  King,  was  far  from  a  pleasant  one,  and  it 
must  have  needed  all  Henri's  self-control  to  prevent 
himself  from  openly  resenting  the  sneers  and  taunts 
which  the  Catholic  nobles  felt  themselves  safe  in  levelling 

112 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

at  "this  little  prisoner  of  a  kinglet."1  After  a  while, 
however,  Charles  IX.,  who  had  always  entertained  a  strong 
liking  for  Henri,  recognising  in  him  qualities  of  head  and 
heart  in  which  his  brothers  were  conspicuously  lacking, 
began  to  treat  him  with  kindness  and  even  affection  ; 
while  in  his  wife  he  found  a  valuable  ally.  Although,  as 
we  have  said,  Marguerite  had  no  love  for  her  husband, 
she  naturally  resented,  as  a  slight  to  her  own  dignity,  the 
want  of  consideration  shown  him  by  those  who,  under 
other  circumstances,  would  have  been  forced  to  accord 
the  prince  the  respect  due  to  his  rank,  and  held  herself  in 
duty  bound  to  aid  him  by  every  means  in  her  power. 
Thus,  in  grave  crises,  she  invariably  drew  near  him,  and 
more  than  once  her  timely  counsel  extricated  Henri  from 
situations  full  of  difficulty  and  danger. 

It  was  a  strange  scene  amidst  which  this  youthful  pair 
had  commenced  their  wedded  life.  No  more  singular 
Court  than  that  of  the  last  years  of  Charles  IX. — which 
Brantome,  in  all  good  faith,  describes  as  "  a  true  para- 
dise and  school  of  all  honesty  and  virtue,  the  ornament 
of  France " — is  known  to  history.  At  its  head,  the 
half-crazy  King,  with  his  tall  stooping  figure  and  beautiful 
furtive  eyes;  already  marked  for  death;  tortured  by 
remorse  ;  distrusting  all  around  him,  and  none  more  than 
the  mother  whose  baneful  influence  had  corrupted  his 
whole  nature,  and  forced  him  to  exchange  his  dreams 
of  glory  for  eternal  infamy,  yet  lacking  the  resolution  to 
free  himself  from  her  control.  ByLhis  side,  his  Queen, 

1  "  On  All  Hallows'  Eve,"  writes  L'Estoile,  "  the  King  of  Navarre 
was  playing  tennis  with  the  Due  de  Guise,  when  the  scant  consideration 
which  was  shown  this  little  prisoner  of  a  kinglet,  at  whom  he  threw  all 
kinds  of  jests  and  taunts,  as  though  he  were  a  simple  page  or  lackey  of 
the  Court,  deeply  pained  a  nunuer  of  honest  people  who  were  watching 
them  clay." 

113  « 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

the  saintly  Elizabeth  of  Austria,  perhaps  the  one  pure 
and  noble  figure  in  the  midst  of  that  abominable  Court, 
"  an  angel  astray  in  hell,  who  did  not  even  suspect  the 
brutal  passions,  the  ferocious  hatreds,  at  work  upon  this 
terrible  and  brilliant  stage."  *  Behind  them,  the  Queen- 
Mother,  freed  at  last  from  the  dread  which  had  haunted 
her  like  a  spectre  for  so  many  months ;  placid,  good- 
humoured,  exquisitely  courteous  ;  surely  the  most  gentle- 
mannered  woman  who  ever  planned  a  deed  of  blood  ; 
always  with  a  smile  on  her  lips,  whatever  dark  schemes 
she  might  be  revolving  in  her  mind  ;  perpetually  talking, 
writing,  reading,  or  entertaining ;  a  great  gourmand, 
"gluttonous  even  to  the  verge  of  ferocity,"2  to  counteract 
the  effects  of  which,  she  took  a  great  deal  of  exercise, 
walking  so  fast  that  it  was  difficult  for  her  ladies  to 
keep  up  with  her.  With  her,  her  two  younger  sons — 
Arcades  ambo  :  Henri  d'Anjou,  "  her  idol  and  contenting 
her  in  everything  she  desired  of  him  ; "  who,  like  her, 
"  divided  in  order  to  reign,"  and  after  having  reduced 
France  to  a  welter  of  anarchy,  was  to  die  by  the  poniard 
of  a  crazy  monk,  hated  and  despised  ;  who  had  gifts 
which,  in  another  age  or  with  a  different  training, 

1  Imbert  de  Saint-Amant,  des  femmes  de  la  Cour  des  derniers  Valols. 

1  In  1549,  the  sheriffs  of  Paris  entertained  Catherine  to  a  "  collation," 
at  which  figured  peacocks,  pheasants,  swans,  pullets,  young  rabbits,  quails, 
capons,  pigs,  pigeons,  and  leverets,  and  the  Queen  nearly  died  of  an  in- 
digestion, in  consequence  of  having  partaken  too  freely  of  a  "  ratatouille 
de  cretei,  rognons  de  coqs,  et  Jonds  d'artichauds." — Cimber  et  Danjou, 
Archives  curieuses  de  fh'istoire  de  France,  cited  by  M.  Charles  Merki,  La 
Reine  Margot  et  le  fin  des  VaMs.  One  would  have  supposed  that  after 
this  unpleasant  experience,  her  Majesty  would  in  future  have  avoided 
such  dangerous  delicacies,  but  such  was  not  the  case,  since,  twenty  years 
later,  L'Estoile  reports  that  Catherine  had  had  another  narrow  escape, 
her  illness  being  attributed  to  over-indulgence  in  an  almost  precisely 
similar  dish. 

114 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

might  have  made  of  him  a  shrewd  and  capable  king  ; 
but  who  is  remembered  only  for  his  follies  and  vices  : 
his  miserable  effeminacy,  his  shameful  debauchery,  his 
falseness,  cruelty,  and  hypocrisy.  And  the  puny,  ill- 
shaped,  pock-marked  Alen^on,  "  perhaps  the  basest  of  the 
base  Valois-Medici  brood ; "  lacking  the  generous  in- 
stincts and  the  cultured  tastes  of  Charles  and  the  personal 
courage  of  Henri  ;  jealous,  meddlesome,  and  ambitious, 
and  so  false  that  his  sister  Marguerite,  in  spite  of  her 
devoted  attachment  to  him,  was  betrayed  into  declaring 
that  "  if  all  treachery  were  banished  from  the  earth,  he 
would  be  able  to  restock  it." 

Near  the  Royal  Family,  the  Due  de  Guise,  gay,  debonair, 
and  surpassing  all  the  nobles  of  the  Court  in  elegance  and 
luxury,  yet  concealing  beneath  the  exterior  of  a  man  of 
pleasure,  a  devouring  ambition,  and  ever  on  the  watch  for  an 
opportunity  of  restoring  to  his  family  their  lost  supremacy. 

And  in  the  background,  a  motley  crowd  of  adventurers, 
cutthroats,  and  courtesans,  rubbing  shoulders  with  the 
greatest  nobles  and  ladies  in  France,  many  of  whom  in 
their  unscrupulousness  and  depravity  of  life  differed  little 
from  them.  The  licentiousness  which  prevailed  was 
appalling,  and  not  the  smallest  attempt  was  made  to 
conceal  it.  Vice  was,  indeed,  the  mode  ;  virtue,  even 
ordinary  decency,  was  mocked  and  derided.  "  In  that 
Court,  common  sin  seemed  too  near  virtue  to  please,  and 
he  was  reckoned  to  show  little  spirit  who  was  content  to 
be  the  gallant  of  but  one  adulteress."  To  laxity  of 
morals  was  joined  a  violence  of  manners  difficult  to  credit ; 
assassinations,  duels,  sanguinary  brawls,  were  of  daily 
occurrence.  In  this  respect  the  princes,  and  even  the 
King  himself,  set  a  shameful  example,  parading  the  streets, 
accompanied  by  their  favourites,  ill-treating  inoffensive 

"5 


QUEEN   MARGO1 

citizens,  insulting  women,  and  committing  all  kinds  of 
outrages.  On  one  occasion,  Charles  IX.,  Anjou,  the  King 
of  Navarre,  and  their  attendants  stormed  and  sacked  the 
house  of  a  gentleman  who  had  offended  Monsieur  by 
refusing  to  marry  his  cast-off  mistress.  On  another,  the 
same  illustrious  personages,  accompanied  by  Henri 
d'Angouleme,  invited  themselves  to  dinner  with  Nantouil- 
let,  the  Provost  of  Paris,  and  robbed  him  of  all  his  silver 
plate.  Their  visit,  L'Estoile  tells  us,  no  less  than  their 
conduct,  greatly  incommoded  the  worthy  magistrate,  who 
happened  to  have  chosen  that  very  day  for  the  removal 
of  a  rival  in  love  or  business,  for  which  purpose  he  had 
concealed  four  bravos  in  his  house.  The  bravos,  hearing 
the  noise  made  by  their  employer's  riotous  guests, 
imagined  themselves  discovered  and  were  on  the  point  of 
rushing  out  of  their  hiding-place,  pistol  in  hand. 

If  circumstances  occasionally  drove  Marguerite  and 
Henri  into  close  alliance,  they  were  none  the  less  an  ill- 
assorted  pair  and,  as  is  so  often  the  case  with  victims  of 
political  exigency,  far  from  happy ,  What  more  complete 
contrast,  indeed,  could  be  imagined  than  these  two  persons! 
The  one,  reared  in  the  artificial  atmosphere  of  the  Valois 
Court,  spoiled  from  her  cradle  by  over-strained  flattery, 
mobile,  impressionable,  irritable,  capricious,  greedy  for 
pleasure  and  admiration,  constantly  seeking  diversions  and 
novelties ;  the  other,  a  child  of  Nature,  "  brought  up 
without  delicacy  and  with  no  superfluities,'*  trained  from 
early  childhood  to  live  on  the  simplest  fare,  to  endure  the 
heat  of  summer  and  the  frosts  of  winter,  and  to  despise 
fatigue  and  danger;  as  much  out  of  place  amid  the 
effeminate  exquisites  of  the  French  Court  as  an  eagle  of 
his  own  mountains  among  a  troupe  of  peacocks. 

Although  Marguerite  affected  to  despise  the  curled  and 

116 


scented  mignons  who  thronged  the  salons  oir  the  Louvre, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  rough  Bearnais,  with  his 
slight,  wiry  figure,  his  piercing  eyes,  his  long  nose  and 
pointed  chin,  careless  and  even  slovenly  in  his  dress,  dis- 
daining the  pretty  compliments  and  speeches  which  sound 
so  pleasant  to  a  woman's  ear  as  m'ich  as  he  did  the 
luxuries  of  the  toilet,  suffered  by  the  very  contrast  he 
presented  to  these  gallants  and  seemed  anything  but  a 
desirable  husband  in  her  eyes. 

And  Henri,  on  his  side,  made  no  attempt  to  gain  her 
affection.  However  high  an  opinion  we  may  hold  of  him 
as  a  king  of  France,  he  plays  a  sorry  part  indeed  in 
Marguerite's  history,  and  proved  himself  the  worst  of 
husbands.  One  often  sees  men  married  to  celebrated 
beauties  preferring  women  much  less  attractive.  It  was 
so  with  the  King  of  Navarre.  From  the  very  first  days 
of  his  marriage  he  neglected  his  wife  and  plunged  into  a 
succession  of  amours,  more  or  less  discreditable,  since  the 
genuine  affection  which  redeemed,  in  some  degree,  the 
liaisons  of  later  years  with  la  belle  Corisande  and  Gabrielle 
d'Estrees  seems  to  have  had  little  or  no  part  in  them. 
Moreover,  so  far  from  seeking  to  conceal  his  irregularities 
from  Marguerite,  he  spoke  of  them  freely  in  her  pres- 
ence, and  did  not  hesitate  to  make  her  the  confidante  of 
his  gallantries. 

United  to  a  husband  to  whom  she  was  utterly  in- 
different a  d  who  treated  her  in  this  manner,  unable  to 
turn  for  counsel  and  aid  to  her  mother  ana  brorners,  it 
is  scarcely  surprising  that  Marguerite  should  have  suc- 
cumbed to  the  temptations  which  surrounded  her,  and 
that  she  should  have  begun  to  indulge  in  highly  dangerous 
flirtations,  which  furnished  abundant  material  for  malicious 
gossip. 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

The  most  favoured  of  the  young  Queen's  admirers 
appears  to  have  been  a  handsome  young  Provencal  named 
La  Mole,  in  the  service  of  her  brother  Alengon,  who 
enjoyed  the  distinction  of  being  the  most  elegant  dancer 
at  the  Court.  In  the  balls  at  the  Louvre,  he  and  Mar- 
guerite might  often  be  seen  dancing  together,  with  a  grace 
which  aroused  general  admiration.  A  singular  character 
was  this  La  Mole,  a  strange  compound  of  accomplish- 
ments and  vices,  debauchery  and  superstition.  L'Estoile 
tells  us  that  he  devoted  most  of  his  time  to  gallantry> 
but  never  neglected  attending  Mass,  not  only  once  but 
several  times  daily,  being  firmly  convinced  that,  if  he 
permitted  a  single  day  to  pass,  even  when  campaigning, 
without  hearing  it,  he  would  most  certainly  be  damned  ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  Mass  devoutly  listened  to 
expiated  all  sins  and  adulteries  that  he  might  commit.  The 
chronicler  adds  that  Charles  IX.  used  to  remark  that 
one  might  keep  a  register  of  the  debauches  of  La  Mole 
by  counting  the  times  he  went  to  Mass. 

M.  de  Saint-Poncy  declares  that  "  nothing  proves  that 
their  relations  exceeded  the  bounds  of  the  haute  galanterie 
in  vogue  at  this  epoch,'*  but  the  majority  of  writers  are 
not  of  this  opinion.  However  that  may  be,  their  con- 
nection, as  we  shall  presently  see,  was  to  furnish  one  of 
the  most  tragic  episodes  of  the  end  of  the  reign,  and 
poor  La  Mole  to  provide  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
truth  of  Don  Juan's  mot,  that  Marguerite's  charms  were 
better  calculated  to  ruin  men  than  to  save  them. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  fourth  civil  war  had  broken 
out — a  revolt  of  the  Huguenot  cities  of  the  South  and 
West  rather  than  a  war.  They  made  an  heroic  and 
desperate  resistance,  and  La  Rochelle  sustained  a  siege  of 

III 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

nearly  four  months,  which  cost  the  besiegers  nearly 
20,000  men,  including  the  Due  d'Aumale.  Finally, 
through  the  mediation  of  La  Noue,  the  citizens,  in  order 
to  save  the  dignity  of  Anjou,  who  commanded  the  royal 
army,  agreed  to  express  regret  for  their  conduct,  and 
the  siege  was  raised. 

The  Court,  indeed,  was  in  no  condition  to  carry  on 
the  war.  It  was  becoming  daily  more  evident  that  the  St. 
Bartholomew  had  been  not  only  a  crime,  but  a  blunder  of 
the  most  fatal  kind.  The  moderate  Catholics  through- 
out France  were  shocked  and  horrified ;  while  the 
Montmorencies  and  the  leaders  of  the  Third  Party  were 
convinced  that  the  Queen-Mother  intended  their  ruin 
after  that  of  the  Bourbons  and  Chatillons.  The  result  was 
a  rapprochement  between  the  "  Politiques  "  and  the  Hugue- 
nots, which  threatened  serious  danger  to  Catherine's 
plans.  The  secret  head  of  this  confederacy  was  the  Due 
d'Alen^on,  who  had  long  chafed  under  the  subjection  to 
which  his  brothers'  dislike  and  his  mother's  indifference 
had  relegated  him,  and  was  determined  tc  assert  himself 
at  all  hazards.  Alen(jon,  who  had  taken  no  part  in  the 
massacre  of  August  24,  and  had  even  openly  censured  it, 
had  been,  since  157 1,  a  candidate  for  the  hand  of  Elizabeth 
of  England,  the  suggested  alliance  meeting  with  much 
apparent  favour  from  the  astute  Queen,  though  she 
probably  never  had  the  least  intention  of  entering 
into  it.  He  had,  at  one  time,  conceived  the  project  of 
escaping  from  the  Court  and  taking  refuge  in  England  ; 
but  his  intentions  were  suspected  and  he  was  kept  under 
close  surveillance.  The  King  even  opened  the  letters 
which  he  received  from  Elizabeth  and  dictated  the  replies 
to  his  brother,  to  the  latter's  intense  mortification. 
Compelled  to  betake  himself,  together  with  Navarre  and 

119 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Cond6,  to  the  siege  of  La  Rochelle,  he  there  quarrelled 
so  violently  with  Anjou  that  they  were  with  difficulty 
prevented  from  coming  to  blows  ;  and,  subject  as  he 
was  to  constant  restraint  and  humiliations,  the  young 
prince  was  ripe  for  any  mischief. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1573,  Elizabeth  intimated  to 
the  French  Court  that,  unless  peace  were  concluded,  she 
would  break  off  the  negotiations  for  her  marriage  with 
Alen^on  and  send  English  troops  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Huguenots.  This  threat,  coupled  with  the  election  of 
Anjou  to  the  Polish  throne,  induced  Catherine  to  return 
to  a  pacific  policy,  and,  in  July,  the  Edict  of  Boulogne 
granted  to  the  Protestants  even  greater  concessions  than 
they  had  been  promised  by  the  Peace  of  Saint-Germain. 
But  Alenc.on  and  Henry  of  Navarre  remained  the  secret 
chiefs  of  the  Huguenots  and  disaffected  Catholics,  and 
during  the  remainder  of  the  reign  of  Charles  IX.,  there 
were  nothing  but  rebellions,  conspiracies,  arrests,  and 
executions. 

On  August  19,  1573,  the  Polish  envoys  charged  to 
offer  the  Crown  to  Anjou  arrived  in  Paris  and  made  a 
sensational  entry,  by  way  of  the  Porte  Saint-Antoine. 
They  numbered  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  gentlemen ; 
some  riding  in  chariots  drawn  by  four  and  even  six  horses, 
whose  harness  was  ornamented  with  silver;  others  on 
horseback,  their  saddles  and  trappings  decorated  with 
gold  and  silver  lace,  while  their  bits  were  of  silver  and 
their  bridles  set  with  jewels.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  of 
great  stature,  with  long  beards,  which  added  not  a  little 
to  their  imposing  appearance,  and  wore  costumes  of 
cloth-of-gold  and  silver,  tall  sable  caps  decorated  with 
jewelled  aigrettes,  and  high  boots  of  yellow  leather. 

120 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Long  scimitars  hung  by  their  side,  and  every  one  carried 
at  his  back  a  bow  and  a  quiver  of  arrows. 

After  having  traversed  the  Rue  Saint-Martin,  in  which 
triumphal  arches  bearing  inscriptions  in  their  honour, 
composed  by  the  Court  poet,  Jean  Daurat,  had  been 
erected,  they  came  to  a  halt  in  the  Rue  des  Augustins, 
at  the  Hotel  of  the  Provost  of  Paris,  Nantouillet,  who 
welcomed  the  chief  of  the  embassy,  the  Bishop  of  Posen. 
Thence  they  proceeded  to  the  Louvre  to  salute  the  King, 
the  Queen,  and  Catherine,  who  came  to  meet  them 
dressed  in  cloth-of-gold  and  preceded  by  their  pages 
and  equerries,  bearing  wands  of  iron  four  or  five  feet 
long.  Next  they  were  conducted  to  the  King  and  Queen 
of  Navarre,  and  the  latter,  who  was  arrayed  in  the  con- 
fection which  we  have  described  elsewhere,1  made  so 
great  an  impression  upon  the  susceptible  Poles,  that 
one  of  them,  Albert  Laski,  was  heard  to  declare,  as  he 
withdrew  with  his  colleagues,  that,  after  being  privileged 
to  gaze  upon  such  marvellous  beauty,  he  did  not  wish  to 
behold  any  object  again. 

Later  in  the  day,  the  Queen-Mother  entertained  the 
envoys  to  a  magnificent  banquet  in  the  garden  of  the 
Tuileries,  in  which  she  had  caused  a  "  pavilion  of  verdure  " 
to  be  erected ;  while  in  the  evening  there  was  a  ball,  in 
which  figured  sixteen  nymphs,  representing  the  sixteen 
provinces  of  France.  These  nymphs,  after  delighting 
the  company  with  their  dancing,  recited  verses  composed 
by  Ronsard  and  Daurat  in  praise  of  France  and  the  new 
King  of  Poland,  and  then  presented  to  every  one  present 
a  gold  medal  "  large  as  the  palm  of  one's  hand,  on  which 
were  engraved  the  products  and  singularities  in  which 
each  province  was  most  fertile." 2 

1  See  p.  31  supra.  •  Brant6m« 

121 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

The  new  King  of  Poland  seemed  in  no  hurry  to  take 
possession  of  his  throne,  and  manifested  very  little  enthu- 
siasm for  what  he  regarded  as  a  kind  of  exile,  far  removed 
from  the  Court  of  the  Valois  and  the  pleasures  which  he 
held  so  dear.  He  was  at  this  time  desperately  enamoured 
of  Marie  de  Cleves,  the  young  Princesse  de  Cond6,  whom 
he  had  made  his  mistress,  and  the  prospect  of  parting 
from  his  beloved  was  extremely  distasteful  to  him. 
Moreover,  the  Court  physicians  had  pronounced  the 
unhappy  Charles  consumptive,  and  it  was  obvious  that  his 
days  were  numbered.  In  the  event  of  his  brother's  death, 
Henri's  absence  might  entail,  in  the  present  troubled 
state  of  the  kingdom,  serious  consequences,  and  quite 
possibly  result  in  Alen^on  seizing  the  throne.  These 
considerations  led  him  to  linger  in  Paris  more  than  a 
month  after  the  visit  of  the  Polish  envoys,  and  he  would 
no  doubt  have  postponed  his  departure  still  further,  had 
not  Charles,  who,  since  the  St.  Bartholomew,  had  re- 
garded all  the  chief  actors  in  that  sanguinary  drama,  and 
Anjou  in  particular,  with  loathing  and  hatred,  informed 
him  one  day  that  France  was  not  large  enough  to  hold 
them  both,  and  that,  "  if  he  did  not  go  of  his  own  free 
will,  he  would  make  him  go  by  force."  To  ensure  the 
departure  of  his  detested  brother,  the  King  accompanied 
him  as  far  as  Vitry,  where  he  was  attacked  by  fever  and 
unable  to  proceed  further.  Catherine  parted  from  her 
favourite  son  at  La  Fere.  "  Go,  my  son,"  said  she, 
as  she  bade  him  adieu.  "  Go ;  you  will  not  be  long 
absent." 

On  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  Poland,  Anjou  judging 
it  prudent  to  secure  Marguerite's  good-will,  or,  at  any 
rate,  her  neutrality,  during  his  absence  from  France, 
endeavoured  to  effect  a  reconciliation  with  his  sister  and 

122 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

'  strove  by  every  means  to  make  her  forget  the  evil 
effects  of  his  ingratitude."  But  her  painful  experience 
during  the  Guise  affair  had  taught  Marguerite  to  know 
her  brother,  and  she  did  not  allow  herself  to  be  deceived 
by  his  protestations  and  promises. 


T2? 


CHAPTER  IX 

Attempt  of  Henri  of  Navarre  and  Alen9on  to  escape  from  the 
Court  revealed  by  Marguerite — The  conspiracy  of  the 
"PoHtique$  " — Failure  of  Guitry's  coup  de  main  at  Saint-Germain 
— Marguerite's  responsibility  for  this — Panic-stricken  flight  of 
the  Court  to  Paris — The  two  princes  again  endeavour  to  escape 
— They  are  arrested,  together  with  their  accomplices  La  Mole 
and  Coconnas  —  Criminal  proceedings  commenced  against 
La  Mole  and  Coconnas — They  are  put  to  the  "  question  " — 
Able  iMimoire  justicatif  on  behalf  of  her  husband  drawn  up 
by  the  Queen  of  Navarre — Her  generous  offer  to  assist  one  of 
the  princes  to  escape  from  Vincennes — Vigorous  measures 
adopted  by  Catherine  against  the  rebels — Execution  of  La 
M&le  and  Coconnas — Their  behaviour  on  the  scaffold — 
Marguerite's  grief  at  the  death  of  La  M&le — A  curious  story 
— Remorse  of  Charles  IX.  for  the  St.  Bartholomew — His 
illness  and  death — His  funeral. 

SCARCELY  had  Anjou  departed  than  fresh  troubles  arose. 
Alencon  and  Henri  of  Navarre  attempted  to  escape  from 
the  Court,  with  the  intention  of  putting  themselves 
at  the  head  of  the  "  Politiques  "  and  Huguenots.  But 
on  the  evening  of  the  day  fixed  for  their  enterprise, 
Miossans,  the  gentleman  whose  life  Marguerite  had 
saved  during  the  St.  Bartholomew,  informed  the  young 
Queen  of  the  intentions  of  her  husband  and  brother 
and  she,  in  turn,  hastened  to  warn  Catherine.  "  The 
Huguenots,"  she  writes,  "  now  proposed  to  them  [Alen- 
c,on  and  Henri]  to  escape,  as  the  King  and  the  Queen 
my  mother  were  passing  through  Champagne,  and  join 

124 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

certain  troops,  which,  it  was  arranged,  should  come  to 
meet  them.  M.  de  Miossans,  a  Catholic  gentleman,1 
having  been  informed  of  this  project,  which  was  pre- 
judicial to  the  interests  of  the  King  his  master,  gave 
me  warning  of  it,  to  prevent  consequences  which  would 
have  brought  so  many  evils  on  themselves  and  on  the 
realm.  I  went  at  once  to  find  the  King  and  the  Queen 
my  mother,  and  told  them  that  I  had  something  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  communicate  to  them,  but  that 
I  would  not  divulge  it,  unless  it  pleased  them  to  promise 
me  that  it  should  bring  no  harm  to  those  concerned, 
and  unless  they  would  take  precautions  without  appear- 
ing to  be  aware  of  anything  .  .  .  This  the  King  and 
Queen  vouchsafed  to  me  ;  and  this  affair  was  managed 
with  such  discretion,  that,  without  their  being  able 
to  ascertain  whence  the  hindrance  proceeded,  they^could 
never  get  an  opportunity  of  effecting  their  escape."  2 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  Marguerite's  motives 
in  thus  betraying  her  husband  and  her  favourite  brother, 
notwithstanding  her  protestation  that  she  was  really 
acting  in  their  interests,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  State, 
But  we  should  remember  that  the  conflicting  ties  of 
birth  and  marriage  placed  her  in  a  very  embarrassing 
position  ;  both  parties  had  claims  on  her  allegiance, 
and  it  was  practically  impossible  for  her  to  be  true  to 
the  one  without  injuring  the  other  ;  while  her  marriage 
had  not  emancipated  her  from  the  rule  of  her  mother, 
to  whom  she  continued  to  render  the  most  implicit 
obedience.  Probably,  as  her  latest  biographer,  M. 
Charles  Merki,  thinks,  she  sacrificed  the  hazardous 

1  Miossans  had  no  doubt  reverted  to  the  Old  Faith,  like  his  master, 
from  motives  of  prudence. 

8  Memoires  de  Marguerite  de  Patois  (edit.  Guessard). 

125 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

projects  of  her  husband  and  Alencon,  partly  through 
a  kind  of  esprit  de  famille,  and  partly  through  the  fear 
of  being  herself  gravely  compromised  by  their  designs.1 

However  that  may  be,  all  her  conduct  at  this  period 
is  very  difficult  to  justify,  and  the  means  whereby  she 
brought  about  the  failure  of  the  conspiracy  of  the 
"  Politiques"  of  which  we  are  about  to  speak,  and  caused 
the  death  of  the  man  who  then  possessed  her  affections, 
reveal  her  in  a  very  unfavourable  light. 

Favoured  by  the  illness  of  the  King  and  the  departure 
of  Anjou  for  Poland,  a  vast  conspiracy  enveloped  the 
country.  Montgommery,  who  had  escaped  from  Paris 
during  the  St.  Bartholomew  and  had  taken  refuge  in 
England,  was  to  make  a  descent  on  the  Norman  coast ; 
Louis  of  Nassau  to  invade  France  from  the  Nether- 
lands ;  the  Due  de  Bouillon  to  open  the  gates  of  Sedan  ; 
La  Noue  to  occupy  the  fortresses  of  Poitou  ;  Mont- 
brun  to  make  himself  master  of  Dauphine ;  while 
d'Amville,  the  Governor  of  Languedoc,  which  he  ruled 
with  almost  sovereign  authority,  had  promised  to  main- 
tain an  attitude  of  friendly  neutrality  towards  the 
Huguenots  of  that  province  and  of  Guienne.  Finally,  a 
bold  Huguenot  chief,  the  Sieur  de  Guitry — Berticheres, 
at  the  head  of  several  hundred  men,  was  charged  to  force 
the  gates  of  the  Chateau  of  Saint-Germain,  where  the 
Court  had  been  residing  since  its  return  from  Vitry,  and 
carry  off  Alencon  and  Henri  of  Navarre. 

The  plans  of  the  conspirators  were  carefully  laid  ; 
but  Guitry's  enterprise,  on  which  the  success  of  the  whole 
movement  hinged,  failed  through  his  own  precipitation. 
Owing  to  some  misunderstanding,  Guitry  anticipated 
the  day,  and  appeared  with  his  men  in  the  environs  of 

1  La  Reine  M argot  et  le  Jin  de  Valois,  p.  85. 
126 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Saint-Germain,  some  time  before  he  was  expected. 
Catherine's  suspicion  was  at  once  aroused.  She  had  a 
consummate  experience  of  intrigues  and  an  unrivalled 
skill  in  unravelling  the  tangled  threads  of  even  the  most 
intricate.  Soon  she  was  in  possession  of  the  whole  plot. 
Some  writers  assert  that  the  pusillanimous  Alencon, 
fearing  that  he  was  on  the  point  of  being  detected, 
gave  way  to  such  terror  that  his  confidant,  La  Mole, 
under  the  impression  that  all  was  lost,  and  anxious 
to  purchase  his  own  safety,  revealed  the  conspiracy 
to  the  Queen-Mother.  This  is  the  view  adopted  by 
Marguerite's  biographer,  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  always 
very  reluctant  to  believe  anything  to  the  detriment  of 
the  princess.  But  the  most  generally  accepted  version 
is  that  Marguerite,  urged  on  by  Catherine,  who  did  not 
scruple  to  employ  the  most  questionable  methods  to  attain 
her  ends,  prevailed  upon  the  infatuated  La  Mole  to  tell 
her  everything,  and  immediately  informed  her  mother. 

Catherine  acted  with  energy  and  decision.  She  sent 
for  Alencon,  reproached  him  bitterly  with  his  treachery, 
and  ordered  him  to  make  a  full  confession,  which  the 
pusillanimous  prince  did  forthwith.  She  also  summoned 
Henri  of  Navarre  to  her  cabinet,  and  severely  admonished 
him.  The  gates  of  the  chateau  were  closed  ;  the  drums 
of  the  Swiss  and  of  the  King's  guards  beat  to  quarters, 
and  preparations  were  made  with  all  possible  speed  for 
the  departure  of  the  Court  for  Paris. 

It  was  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  February  23, 
1574,  when  Catherine  learned  of  what  was  intended. 
By  two  o'clock  on  the  following  morning,  everything 
was  in  readiness,  and  the  Court  set  out  for  Paris.  The 
King  travelled  in  a  litter,  surrounded  by  the  Swiss  in 
battle  array,  as  during  the  retreat  from  Meaux  ;  the 

127 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Queen-Mother  followed  in  her  coach,  and  the  King  of 
Navarre  and  Alenc/m,  "  whom,"  says  Marguerite,  "  she 
did  not  treat  with  quite  so  much  tenderness  as  upon  the 
former  occasion,"  had  received  preremptory  orders  to 
accompany  her  ;  while  another  coach  contained  the 
Queens  Elizabeth  and  Marguerite.  The  utmost  con- 
sternation prevailed,  and  the  Catholic  courtiers  fled 
terror-stricken,  in  the  full  belief  that  the  avengers  of 
the  St.  Bartholomew  were  behind  them.  Some  galloped 
madly  along  the  high  road  ;  others  hurried  to  the  river 
and  took  to  the  boats  they  found  there  ;  every  kind  of 
conveyance  to  be  found  in  the  neighbourhood  was  pressed 
into  the  service  of  the  fugitives,  and  those  unable  to 
procure  one  travelled  on  foot,  expecting  every  moment 
to 'be  overtaken  by  the  Huguenots  and  cut  to  pieces. 
The~Cardinals  de  Bourbon,  de  Lorraine,  and  de  Guise, 
the  Chancellor  Birague  and  the  Minister  Morvilliers, 
escaped  on  horse-back,  "  clinging  to  their  saddle-bows 
with  both  hands,  as  frightened  of  their  horses  as  of  their 


enemies." 


This  panic-stricken  flight  terminated  at  Paris,  where 
the  King  and  Queen-Mother  went  to  lodge  at  the  Hotel 
de  Retz,  believing  that  they  would  be  in  greater  security 
there  than  at  the  Louvre  or  the  Tuileries.  Early  in 
April,  Charles  left  Paris  to  shut  himself  up  at  Vincennes, 
with  the  Swiss  as  his  guard,  taking  with  him  Alengon 
and  Navarre,  who  were  kept  under  close  observation. 
Every  day  brought  fresh  intelligence  of  the  troubled  state 
of  the  country,  and  soon  Catherine,  ever  on  the  alert, 
learned  that  the  two  princes,  undeterred  by  the  failure 
of  their  previous  efforts  to  escape,  were  planning  yet 
a  third  attempt,  with  the  connivance  of  La  Mole  and 
another  of  Alencpn's  favourites,  the  Comte  de  Coconnas, 

128 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

a  Piedmontese  adventurer,  who  had  earned  an  unenviable 
notoriety  by  his  atrocious  cruelty  during  the  St.  Bar- 
tholomew.1 

Both  theprinces  were  promptly  arrested  and  imprisoned 
in  the  keep  of  Vincennes,  while  La  Mole  and  Coconnas 
were  likewise  apprehended,  together  with  Cosmo  Rug- 
gieri,  the  Queen-Mother's  astrologer,  who  was  implicated 
in  their  designs.  A  wax  figure,  said  to  resemble  the 
King,  pierced  through  the  heart  and  the  eye  by  needles, 
was  found  at  La  Mole's  lodging,  and  this  was  made  the 
basis  of  a  charge  of  attempting  to  procure  Charles  IX.'s 
death  by  magic.  "  Make  Cosmo  tell  everything,"  wrote 
Catherine,  on  April  19,  to  the  fr o cur eur- general  La 
Guesle,  "  that  we  may  know  the  truth  about  the  King's 
illness."  And,  in  another  letter,  she  writes  :  "  They 
tell  me  that  he  (Cosmo)  has  fashioned  an  image  of  wax, 
which  he  has  pierced  through  the  heart,  and  they  say 
that  it  is  to  injure  the  King."  a 

A  commission  composed  of  members  of  the  Parlement 
of  Paris,  was  appointed  to  examine  the  princes,  with 
President  de  Thou  at  its  head,  while  criminal  proceedings 
were  commenced  against  the  others.  The  Queen- 

1  He  is  said  to  have  promised  several  Huguenots  their  lives,  on  condi- 
tion that  they  would  renounce  their  religion  ;  and  when  his  helpless 
victims  had  performed  what  he  required  of  them,  to  have  poniarded  them 
with  his  own  hands. 

*  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  belief  in  sorcery  was,  of 
course,  practically  universal.  During  the  siege  of  Paris,  in  1588,  Guise's 
sister,  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier,  had  a  little  image  of  Henri  III.  made, 
which  she  pierced  from  time  to  time  with  a  gold  pin.  The  famous 
Marshal  de  Biron  practised  sorcery  with  La  Fin,  and  it  was  asserted,  in 
the  course  of  his  trial,  that,  in  conjunction  with  this  same  La  Fin,  he 
made  waxen  figures,  to  which  he  addressed  the  following  formula  : 
"  Impious  King,  you  shall  perish  ;  as  the  wax  melts,  so  you  shall  waste 


away  ! 


129 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Mother  was  determined  to  leave  no  stone  unturned  to 
discredit  Henri  of  Navarre,  Marguerite,  and  Alencpn 
with  Charles  IX.,  in  order  that  the  claims  of  the  King 
of  Poland  might  be  strengthened.  By  ruining  them, 
she  would  assure  her  own  power  and  that  of  her  favourite 
son. 

La  Mole,  when  interrogated,  denied  everything  with 
which  he  was  charged.  He  was  put  to  the  "  question" 
the  boot  being  used  with  merciless  severity  ;  but  he  did 
not  cease  to  affirm  that  he  had  conspired  neither  against 
the  King's  life  nor  his  authority.  All  that  he  had  done, 
he  said,  was  to  favour  the  escape  of  the  princes,  the  chief 
responsibility  for  which,  however,  he  threw  upon  Guil- 
laume  de  Montmorency,  the  youngest  of  the  four 
brothers,  who  had  prudently  taken  to  flight.  No  witness 
could  wring  from  him  any  admission  which  might  com- 
promise his  master  or  Henri  of  Navarre. 

Asked  for  an  explanation  concerning  the  wax  figure 
found  at  his  lodging,  he  declared  that  it  was  intended 
to  represent  not  the  King,  but  a  young  girl  of  Provence, 
and  that  he  had  pierced  it  to  the  heart,  on  the  advice  of 
Cosmo  Ruggieri,  in  order  to  gain  the  love  of  the  said 
damsel.1 

Coconnas  was  less  firm,  and,  in  the  anguish  of  torture, 
compromised  a  number  of  important  personages,  includ- 
ing Conde,  the  Due  de  Montmorency,  and  Thevales, 
the  Governor  of  Metz. 

The  cor~ mission  appointed  to  examine  the  princes 
obtained  from  Alencpn  a  full  confession  of  his  part  in 
the  affair.  But  Henri  of  Navarre  showed  more  courage, 
and  made  a  deposition,  drawn  up  with  much  address  and 
dignity,  which  he  owed  to  his  wife's  skilful  pen.  In 

1  D'Aubign£,  Histoire  universellt,  iv. 
130 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

this  memoir,  after  having  enumerated  all  the  ill-usage 
and  injuries  to  which  he  had  been  subjected  since  the 
St.  Bartholomew,  the  marks  of  contempt  and  dislike 
which  the  Queen-Mother  had  shown  him,  and  the 
perils  which  surrounded  him  in  the  midst  of  this  troubled 
Court,  he  admitted  that  he  had  really  intended,  in  com- 
pany with  his  brother-in-law,  to  seek  safety  in  flight. 
The  preservation  of  his  life,  he  contended,  imperatively 
demanded  such  a  step.  He  defended  himself,  however, 
energetically  from  ever  having  been  concerned  in  any 
conspiracy,  and  declared  his  unalterable  attachment 
to  the  person  of  the  King.  This  skilfully  conceived 
document  had  the  effect  of  placing  Henri  in  the  position 
of  an  innocent  victim  ;  it  was,  in  fact,  a  recrimination 
rather  than  a  justification. 

"The  Memoire  justificatif"  remarks  M.  de  Saint- 
Poncy,  "  is  worthy  to  be  read,  and  will  remain  as  a 
masterpiece  of  luminous  exposition,  of  finesse,  of  tact, 
of  dignity,  and  even  of  eloquence.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  instruments  of  the  French  language  at  this 
epoch,  anticipating  by  twenty  years  the  Memoires  of 
Marguerite,  and  anterior  to  the  majority  of  important 
works  of  the  time,  preceding  the  Essais  of  Montaigne, 
the  treatises  of  Charron,  and  the  history  of  d'Aubigne. 
But  it  is  more  than  a  piece  of  literature  ;  it  is  a  good 
action  !  Marguerite,  at  this  juncture,  renders  a  signal 
service  to  the  prince  whom,  contrary  to  her  inclination, 
she  had  been  forced  to  espouse  ;  she  associated  herself 
with  a  noble  devotion  in  the  ill-fortune  of  her  husband  ; 
and  perhaps,  for  the  third  time,  he  was  indebted  to  her 
for  his  safety."  l 

1  This  document  was  published  by  Le  Laboureur,  in  his  additions 
to  Castelnau's  Memoires,  and  republished  by  Mongez,  in  his  Histoire  de 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Nor  was  the  composition  of  this  able  memoir  the  only 
proof  of  solicitude  which  the  young  Queen  gave  her 
husband  in  his  peril,  for  she  conceived  the  project  of 
assisting  one  of  the  royal  captives  to  escape,  by  a  means 
which  has  frequently  been  employed  with  success  in 
similar  circumstances. 

Notwithstanding  the  severe  measures  adopted  in 
regard  to  the  prisoners,  Marguerite,  in  her  quality  of 
sister  to  Charles  IX.,  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  free  access 
to  the  keep  of  Vincennes,  where  her  husband  and  brother 
were  confined  ;  nor  did  the  guards,  out  of  respect  to 
her,  examine  the  occupants  of  her  coach,  or  make  the 
women  of  her  suite  raise  the  masks  of  satin  or  velvet, 
which,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  the  ladies 
of  the  Court  wore  when  out  of  doors,  less  for  the  purpose 
of  concealing  their  features  than  through  a  belief 
that  the  practice  served  to  protect  the  freshness  of  their 
complexions  from  sun  and  wind.  This  custom  suggested 
to  her  the  idea  of  disguising  as  a  woman  one  of  the  two 
prisoners  and  making  him  accompany  her  out  of  the 
chateau,  leaving  one  of  the  ladies  of  her  suite  in  his  place. 
However,  her  scheme  came  to  nothing.  "  They  were 
too  well  watched  by  the  guards  for  both  of  them  to  go," 
writes  Marguerite.  "  It  would  have  sufficed  if  one  of 
them  had  escaped,  to  guarantee  the  safety  of  the  other  ; 
but,  as  they  could  never  agree  which  this  one  was  to  be, 
each  desiring  to  go  and  refusing  to  be  left  behind,  the 
plan  could  never  be  put  into  execution."  * 

The  conduct  of  Henri  of  Navarre  and  Alen^on  in 
this  matter  compares  very  unfavourably  with  that  of  the 

Marguerite  tU  Valois.     It  is  also  given  by  Guessard  in  his  edition  of 
Marguerite's  Mfmoires. 

1  Memtires  et  let  ires  de  Marguerite  de  Galois  (edit.  Guessard). 

132 


yUEEN   MARGOT 

princess,  who  offered  them  an  example  of  generosity 
and  devotion  which  neither  had  the  courage  to  imitate. 
But  history  ought  to  record  with  admiration  the  mag- 
nanimity of  Marguerite,  who  was  willing  to  incur  the 
resentment  of  the  King  and  the  Queen-Mother,  for  the 
sake  of  an  unworthy  brother  and  of  a  husband  who  had 
so  signally  failed  in  the  duty  he  owed  her. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Catherine  had  accurately  gauged 
the  extent  of  the  danger  which  threatened  her.  The 
"Politiques  "  and  Huguenots  had  issued  a  manifesto  de- 
manding the  reform  of  the  government,  the  assembling  of 
the  Estates,  and  the  restoration  of  the  national  liberties. 
But  it  was  obvious  that  such  demands  were  merely  a 
cloak  for  their  real  intentions,  and  that,  should  the  rising 
prove  successful,  the  effect  would  be  to  deprive  the  King 
of  Poland  of  the  succession  to  the  throne,  which  must 
speedily  fall  vacant,  in  favour  of  the  more  accommodating 
Alen^on. 

Invested  with  full  powers  by  the  illness  of  the  King, 
Catherine  took  prompt  and  energetic  measures.  The 
two  princes  were  more  vigorously  guarded  than  ever  ; 
the  Marechaux  de  Montmorency  and  de  Cosse,  who  had 
had  the  temerity  to  come  to  Court,  to  endeavour  to 
justify  themselves,  were  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Bastille, 
and  three  armies  were  despatched  against  the  rebels  of 
Normandy,  the  South,  and  central  France.  In  the  North, 
Matignon  drove  back  Montgommery,  and  forced  him  to 
throw  himself  into  Saint-Lo  ;  the  Due  de  Montpensier 
took  Fontenoy  and  Lusignan,  and  the  third  army,  under 
his  son,  the  Dauphin  of  Auvergne,  held  Montbrun  in 
check  in  that  province.  "  At  least,"  exclaimed  the  dying 
King,  on  his  sick-bed  at  Vincennes,  when  informed  of 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

the  turmoil  into  which  his  unhappy  kingdom  was  once 
more  plunged,  "  they  might  have  waited  until  my  death. 
But  that  is  too  much  to  expect !  " 

In  those  days,  the  figurants  generally  suffered  for  the 
misdeeds  of  the  leading  actors  in  dramas  such  as  this, 
and  Marguerite's  ill-starred  lover,  La  Mole,  and  his 
fellow-conspirator,  Coconnas,  had  been  condemned  to 
death.  In  1571,  the  former  had  been  sent  by  his  master 
to  England  to  plead  the  duke's  cause  with  Elizabeth, 
and  his  handsome  face  and  adroit  compliments  had,  it 
is  said,  so  delighted  the  "  Virgin  Queen,"  as  to  seriously 
alarm  the  reigning  favourite,  the  ambitious  Leicester. 
However  that  may  be,  Elizabeth,  through  Valentine 
Dale,  her  Ambassador  at  the  French  Court,  intervened 
actively  on  behalf  of  this  fascinating  gallant,  and  besought 
Catherine,  as  a  personal  favour,  to  mitigate  his  punish- 
ment. But  the  Queen-Mother  detested  La  Mole,  who 
had  been  the  intermediary  between  the  Montmorencies 
and  Alenc/m,  and  replied  that  her  son  had  pardoned  his 
subjects  who  had  revolted  for  the  cause  of  their  religion, 
but  that  such  was  not  the  case  with  La  Mole,  "  who  had 
been  nourished  at  the  Court  for  years,  had  eaten  of  their 
bread,  and  had  been  treated  by  the  King  not  as  a  subject, 
but  as  a  companion."  According  to  the  English  Ambas- 
sador, Alenc/m  also  intervened  on  behalf  of  his  two 
favourites,  and  having  been  admitted  to  an  audience  by 
the  King,  went  on  his  knees  to  implore  him  to  spare 
their  lives.  All,  however,  was  in  vain,  for,  though 
Dale  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  Charles  the  concession 
that  the  condemned  men  should  not  be  subjected  to 
the  ignominy  of  a  public  execution,  and  that  a  few  days' 
respite  should  be  accorded  them,  the  messenger  des- 
patched with  these  orders  from  Vincennes,  found  the 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Porte  Saint-Antoine  closed,  and  when  he  had  at  length 
succeeded  in  obtaining  admission,  it  was  too  late.  Acting, 
without  doubt,  under  secret  orders  from  Catherine, 
who  feared  that  the  King  might,  after  all,  relent,  the 
First  President  of  the  Parlement  had  given  instructions 
for  the  execution  to  take  place  at  an  earlier  hour  than  that 
originally  fixed  ;  and  the  condemned  men  were  hurried 
off  to  the  Place  de  Greve,  and  beheaded  immediately 
on  their  arrival  there,  without  even  their  sentence  being 
read,  as  was  customary. 

La  Mole  was  the  first  to  die,  and  his  last  words  revealed 
the  singular  and  profane  compound  of  devotion  and 
gallantry  in  which  his  life  had  been  passed.  "  May  God 
and  the  Blessed  Virgin  have  mercy  on  my  soul !  "  cried 
he.  And  then,  turning  to  the  executioner  and  his 
assistants,  he  added  :  "  Commend  me  to  the  good  graces 
of  the  Queen  of  Navarre  and  the  ladies  !  " 

In  the  torture-chamber,  as  we  have  seen,  La  Mole 
had  shown  much  courage  and  endurance,  while  Co- 
connas  had  been  very  speedily  induced  to  confess  all  he 
knew.  But  on  the  scaffold  their  positions  were  reversed. 
When  the  supreme  moment  arrived,  and  the  cross  was 
handed  to  him  by  the  priest  in  attendance,  the  Pro- 
vencal trembled  so  violently  that  he  was  unable  to  carry 
it  to  his  lips,  or  even  to  hold  it.  The  Piedmontese,  on 
the  other  hand,  met  death  with  a  firm  countenance, 
"  like  the  murderer  that  he  was,"  remarking  that  "  it 
was  necessary  that  great  captains  of  great  enterprises 
should  die  in  this  fashion  for  the  service  of  the  great."  1 

1  L'Estoile,  edit.  Michaud,  i.  30.  Charles  IX.,  on  hearing  that  he 
was  dead,  observed  :  "  Coconnas  was  a  gentleman,  a  valiant  man,  and  a 
brave  captain,  but  a  villain,  aye,  I  believe,  one  of  the  greatest  villains  in 
my  realm."  The  King  had  not  forgotten  that  worthy's  exploits  during 

135 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

As  for  the  astrologer,  Cosmo  Ruggieri,  he  escaped 
with  a  shaven  head — the  usual  punishment  of  sorcerers — 
and  a  few  months  in  the  galleys,  "  for,"  says  d'Aubigne, 
"  the  Queen  [Catherine]  had  favoured  him,  and  made 
use  of  those  of  that  profession."  * 

Marguerite  had  been,  in  a  great  measure,  responsible 
for  the  death  of  La  Mole,  for,  though  Catherine  had 
pardoned  him  at  Saint-Germain,  she  had  never  forgiven 
him  his  share  in  the  affair,  and  he  had  been  from  that 
moment  a  suspected  person,  always  under  the  closest 
surveillance,  and  destined  for  exemplary  punishment, 
if  detected  in  any  fresh  transgression.  Fickle,  but,  never- 
theless, sincere  in  her  passing  attachments,  the  young 
Queen  is  said  to  have  carried  her  grief  to  the  verge  of 
absurdity.  If  we  are  to  believe  the  Due  de  Nevers,  or 
rather  Gomberville,  the  editor  of  the  Memoires  bearing 
his  name,  Marguerite  and  her  friend  the  Duchesse  de 
Nevers,  by  whom  Coconnas  had  been  "  well  treated," 
caused  the  heads  of  their  hapless  lovers  to  be  perfumed 
and  embalmed  in  order  to  have  always  before  them  these 
precious  souvenirs  of  their  amours.  And  the  author  of 
the  Divorce  satyrique — not,  however,  a  chronicler  very 
worthy  of  credit — makes  Henri  IV.  say:  "La Mole] left 
his  head  at  Saint-Jean-en-Greve,  in  company  with  that 
of  Coconnas,  where,  however,  they  did  not  moulder  nor 
remain  long  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  the  populace,  since 

the  St.  Bartholomew,  of  which  he  is  said  to  have  boasted,  even  in  his 
Majesty's  presence. 

1  Du  Vair  relates  that  Catherine  had  placed  Cosmo  Ruggieri  in 
Alen9on's  household,  under  pretence  of  teaching  the  prince  Italian,  but, 
in  reality,  to  spy  upon  him.  Everything  goes  to  prove  that  the  Floren- 
tine was  an  agent-provocateur,  and  that  his  punishment  was  merely  a 
concession  to  public  opinion,  for  which  he  was  no  doubt  amply  indem- 
nified subsequently 

136 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

the  following  night  my  prudish  wife — Queen  Margot — 
and  her  companion  Madame  de  Nevers,  the  faithful 
mistress  of  Coconnas,  having  caused  them  to  be  carried 
off,1  bore  them  in  their  coaches  to  inter  them,  with 
their  own  hands,  in  the  Chapel  of  Saint-Martin,  which 
stands  at  the  foot  of  Montmartre.  The  death  of  La 
Mole  cost  his  mistress  many  tears,  and,  under  the  name 
of  Hyacinthe,  she  caused  her  regrets  to  be  long  sung,2 
notwithstanding  the  frequent  and  nocturnal  consolations 
of  Saint-Luc." 

The  end  of  the  troubled  reign  of  Charles  IX.  was  at 
hand.  Ever  since  the  St.  Bartholomew,  the  unhappy  King 
had  been  a  changed  man  ;  he  himself  was  the  most  pitiable 
victim  of  the  foul  deed  which  had  been  committed  in 
his  name,  a  prey  to  agonies  of  shame  and  remorse,  which 
gave  him  no  respite  either  by  day  or  night.  "  His  looks 
have  become  sad,"  wrote  the  Venetian  Ambassador, 
Cavalli ;  "  in  his  conversation  and  in  his  audiences,  he 
cannot  look  those  who  address  him  in  the  face  ;  he  bends 
his  head,  closes  his  eyes ;  then  suddenly  opens  them, 
and,  as  though  that  movement  caused  him  pain,  closes 
them  again  with  not  less  rapidity."8  He  declared  to  his 
surgeon,  Ambroise  Pare,  that  he  had  always  before  him, 
whether  sleeping  or  awake,  the  vision  of  all  those 

1  A  gentleman  of  Auvergne,  Jacques  d'Oradour  by  name,  who  at  this 
time  occupied  the  post  of  maitre  d hotel  to  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  and 
was  killed  at  the  Battle  of  Issoire,  in  1590,  is  mentioned  as  the  person 
who  abstracted  the  severed  heads  of  La  Mole  and  Coconnas. 

*  According  to  Mongez,  Marguerite,  to  console  herself  for  the  loss  of 
La  M61e,  engaged  the  famous  Du  Perron,  afterwards  cardinal,  to  cele- 
brate his  death  in  verse,  and  it  is  of  him  of  whom  he  speaks,  under  the 
name  of  Hyacinthe,  in  a  chanson  composed  in  1574. 

8  Cited  by  Armand  Baschet,  la  Diplomatie  vettetienne. 

'37 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

slaughtered  corpses,  "presenting  themselves  with  hideous 
faces  and  covered  with  blood."  And  he  added  :  "  I 
would  that  the  imbecile  and  the  innocent  had  been 
spared  !  "  D'Aubigni  relates  that,  a  week  after  the 
massacre,  a  large  flock  of  crows  were  observed  perched  on 
the  towers  and  gables  of  the  Louvre ;  and  the  conscience- 
stricken  King  believed  that  their  hoarse  cries  were  a 
demand  for  another  such  banquet  as  they  had  lately 
tasted.  That  same  night,  two  hours  after  retiring  to 
rest,  Charles  suddenly  started  from  his  bed,  called  upon 
his  attendants  to  rise,  and  sent  for  Henri  of  Navarre 
and  others,  to  listen  to  a  confused  noise,  a  concert  of 
shouts,  shrieks,  and  groans,  such  as  had  echoed  through 
the  streets  of  Paris  on  the  night  of  the  massacre.  All 
who  were  present  beard  the  turmoil ;  indeed,  so  loud 
was  it  that  the  King,  in  the  belief  that  some  disturbance 
had  broken  out  in  the  city,  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Montmorencies  and  their  partisans,  ordered  his  guards 
to  hasten  into  the  streets  and  quell  it.  But  they  returned, 
declaring  that  the  city  was  perfectly  tranquil,  and  that 
the  air  only  was  troubled.  And  this  disturbance,  we 
are  told,  continued  every  night  for  a  week,  commencing 
always  at  the  same  hour. 

In  the  hope  of  escaping  these  nightmares,  the  King 
sought  relief  in  the  wildest  physical  exertions.  "  He 
wishes  to  tire  himself  out  at  all  cost ;  he  remains  on  horse- 
back for  twelve  or  fourteen  consecutive  hours;  he 
proceeds  thus,  chasing  and  coursing  through  the  woods 
the  same  beast,  the  stag,  for  two  or  three  days  at  a  time, 
never  pausing  save  to  partake  of  food,  never  reposing 
save  for  a  moment  at  night."1  At  other  times,  he  would 
enter  a  forge  and,  stripped  to  the  waist,  labour  at  the 
1  Cavalli,  cited  by  Armand  Baschet,  la  Diplomatic  vinetignne, 

13* 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

fashioning  of  helm  or  cuirass,  until  the  perspiration 
poured  in  rivulets  down  his  body,  and  his  attendants 
gazed  at  him  in  horror,  as  at  a  man  possessed. 

But  the  only  peace  he  found  was  death  ;  for,  aided  by 
these  physical  excesses,  the  germs  of  consumption, 
which  had  long  lain  latent  within  him,  developed  rapidly, 
and  soon  he  knew  that  his  end  was  near.  In  the  autumn 
of  1573,  he  was  attacked  by  small-pox,  and,  though  he 
recovered,  his  strength  thenceforth  failed  completely, 
and,  in  the  early  spring  of  the  following  year,  he  is  des- 
cribed by  the  English  Ambassador  as  "  no  more  than  skin 
and  bone,"  and  so  weak  as  to  be  unable  to  stand.  At 
the  beginning  of  May,  he  took  to  his  bed,  and  never  left 
it  again.  In  the  night  of  the  22nd  to  the  23rd,  he  had 
a  violent  attack  of  haemorrhage,  which  reduced  him  to  a 
pitiable  state  of  exhaustion,  and  it  was  seen  that  the  end 
was  only  a  question  of  days.  On  the  28th,  he  summoned 
his  chief  physician,  Mazillac,  and  pathetically  inquired 
whether  it  were  not  possible  that  he  and  all  the  other 
great  doctors  in  the  realm  could  find  some  alleviation 
for  his  sufferings,  "  since,"  he  added,  "  I  am  horribly  and 
cruelly  tormented."  To  which  Mazillac  replied,  "  very 
wisely  and  piously  that  all  that  depended  on  their  art 
they  had  done,  omitting  nothing,  and  that  only  the 
previous  day,  all  those  of  their  Faculty  had  met  in  con- 
sultation to  find  some  remedy  ;  but  that,  to  tell  the 
truth,  God  was  the  great  and  sovereign  physician  in 
such  maladies,  to  whom  one  ought  to  have  recourse,  and 
that  it  was  His  outstretched  hand  which  he  ought  to  re- 
cognise, in  order  to  humiliate  himself  beneath  it,  and  await 
pardon  and  relief."  "  I  believe  what  you  say  is  true," 
rejoined  the  King,"  and  that  you  know  no  other  remedy."1 
1  journal  de  UEstoile  (edit.  Michaud),  i.  303. 
139 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

On  the  29th,  he  dictated  a  letter  to  Matignon,  who 
was  closely  besieging  Montgommery,  bidding  him  obey 
the  orders  of  the  Queen-Mother,  since  he  himself  was 
no  longer  in  a  condition  to  issue  them.  That  night 
he  became  much  worse,  and  Mazillac  ordered  all  to  leave 
the  sick-room,  with  the  exception  of  two  of  his  favourite 
attendants  and  his  old  nurse,  to  whom,  notwithstanding 
that  she  was  a  Huguenot,  Charles  was  greatly  attached. 
"  As  she,  having  seated  herself  on  a  chest,  was  on  the 
point  of  falling  asleep,"  relates  L'Estoile,  "  she  heard 
the  King  complaining,  upon  which  she  approached  very 
softly,  and  drew  back  his  curtains.  The  King  began  to 
say  to  her,  heaving  a  great  sigh  and  weeping  so  violently, 
that  the  sobs  choked  his  words  :  *  Ah,  nurse,  ma  mie, 
nurse !  What  bloodshed  and  what  murders  !  Ah  ! 
what  evil  counsel  I  have  had  !  O  my  God,  pardon  me 
for  them,  and  have  pity  on  me,  if  it  please  Thee  !  I 
know  not  where  I  am,  so  much  do  they  perplex  and 
trouble  me.  What  will  become  of  all  this  ?  What  shall 
I  do  ?  I  am  lost ;  I  know  it  well.'  Then  his  nurse 
said  to  him  :  *  Sire,  let  the  murders  and  the  blood  be  on 
the  heads  of  those  who  forced  you  to  commit  them, 
and  on  those  who  gave  you  evil  counsel.  But,  as  for  you, 
Sire,  you  are  not  responsible,  and,  since  you  did  not 
approve  of  them,  and  since  you  regretted  them,  as  you 
have  just  protested,  believe  that  God  will  never  lay 
them  to  your  charge  ;  and  that,  in  earnestly  asking 
pardon  of  Him,  as  you  do,  He  will  accord  it  you,  and 
will  cover  them  with  the  mantle  of  His  Son,  to  whom 
alone  you  must  have  recourse.'  ' 

The  following  morning,  news  reached  Paris  that  Mont- 
gommery, the  involuntary  murderer  of  Henri  II.,  had 
surrendered,  Catherine  hurried  to  the  King's  bed-side 

140 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

to  inform  him  of  the  fact ;  but  Charles  scarcely  seemed 
to  hear  her.  "  What,"  cried  she,  "  is  it  nothing  to  you, 
my  son,  that  the  man  who  slew  your  father  is  a  prisoner  ?  " 
To  which  the  King  replied  that  it  was  a  matter  of  in- 
difference to  him,  like  all  else,  and,  turning  his  face  to 
the  wall,  asked  to  be  left  in  peace. 

Later  in  the  day,  he  roused  himself,  and  sent  for 
Alenc.cn,  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon, 
the  Chancellor,  Birague,  and  some  other  Ministers 
and  gentlemen  ;  and  having  reminded  them  that  the 
Salic  Law  debarred  his  infant  daughter l  from  the 
succession,  declared  the  King  of  Poland  his  lawful  heir 
and  successor,  and  his  mother  Regent  until  his  return  to 
France. 

During  the  night,  he  was  in  great  suffering,  and  it 
was  seen  that  he  would  not  live  through  the  following  day. 
He  called  Henri  of  Navarre,  to  whom  he  spoke  for  some 
time,  in  a  low  voice,  commending  to  his  care  his  wife 
Elizabeth  and  her  little  daughter,  and  also  his  son  by 
his  beloved  mistress,  Marie  Touchet,  who  afterwards 
became  Comte  d'Auvergne  and  later  Due  d'Angoule"me. 
"  My  brother,"  said  the  dying  man  to  the  Bearnais, 
kneeling  by  his  pillow,  "  you  are  losing  a  good  friend. 
If  I  had  believed  what  I  was  told,  you  would  be  no  longer 
alive.  Do  not  trust  .  .  ."  "  Monsieur,"  hastily  broke 
in  Catherine,  who  had  been  straining  her  ears  to  catch 
her  son's  words,  "  do  not  say  that ! " 

Towards  mid-day — it  was  Whit-Sunday,  May  30 — 
he  summoned  his  mother  to  his  bed-side,  and  bade  her 
a  brief  farewell ;  and  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
he  died,  within  a  little  less  than  a  month  of  completing 
his  twenty-fourth  year. 

1  Marie  Isabella  de  France,  died  April  2,  1578. 
141 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

The  pathetic  end  of  Charles  IX.  was  received  with 
regret  both  by  Court  and  city  ;  for,  notwithstanding 
his  violent  and  erratic  temper,  the  deceased  King  had 
enjoyed  some  measure  of  popularity  with  his  subjects, 
who  infinitely  preferred  tobe  ruled  by  him  than  by  the 
effeminate  and  dissolute  prince  whom  his  premature 
death  had  called  to  the  throne.  But  by  no  one  was  he 
more  sincerely  mourned  than  by  his  sister,  the  young 
Queen  of  Navarre,  who  tells  us  that  she  lost  in  him  "  all 
that  it  was  possible  for  her  to  lose,"  and  saw  herself 
deprived  of  her  chief  support  against  her  mother's  tyranny 
and  her  elder  brother's  enmity. 

The  obsequies  of  the  hapless  young  monarch  were 
celebrated  with  the  customary  magnificence.  But  the 
spirit  of  discord,  which  had  made  of  his  reign  one 
long  succession  of  wars,  conspiracies,  and  assassinations 
followed  him  even  to  the  grave.  As  the  cortege  emerged 
from  Notre-Dame  to  proceed  to  Saint-Denis,  there  arose 
a  violent  dispute  between  the  upper  clergy  and  the  chief 
officials  of  the  Parlement  of  Paris,  on  the  question  of 
precedence.  This  ordinarily  belonged  to  the  clergy; 
but  the  magistrates  insisted  that,  on  the  present  occasion, 
it  appertained  to  them,  as  the  representatives  of  the  absent 
King.  So  acrimonious  became  the  dispute,  that,  rather 
than  give  way,  both  parties  decided  to  take  no  further 
share  in  the  proceedings,  and,  accordingly,  withdrew  in 
a  body,  being  followed  by  nearly  the  whole  of  the  nobility. 
Brantome,  Fumel,  and  the  Italian  soldier  Strozzi,  were 
the  only  persons  of  note  who  accompanied  the  coffin 
to  Saint-Denis,  where  it  was  met  by  the  monks  of  the 
abbey,  with  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  their  abbot, 
at  their  head,  and  lowered  into  the  vaults  in  which  slept 
so  many  rulers  of  France. 


CHAPTER   X 

Measures  taken  by  Catherine  to  secure  the  succession  for  the 
King  of  Poland — Execution  of  Montgommery — Flight  of 
Henri  III.  from  Cracow — He  visits  Vienna  and  Italy  before 
returning  to  France— Meeting  between  the  new  King  and 
the  Royal  Family  at  Bourgoin — His  reception  of  Henri  of 
Navarre  and  Alen^on — Impressions  of  Marguerite — The 
Queen  of  Navarre  accused  by  Henri  III.  of"  a  very  dangerous 
form  of  benevolence"  at  Lyons — Stormy  interview  between 
Marguerite  and  the  Q^ecn-Mother — The  Princess  succeeds  in 
establishing  her  innocence — Apparent  harmony  re-established 
in  the  Royal  Family — Death  of  the  Duchess  of  Savoy  and  of 
the  Princesse  de  Conde — Extravagant  grief  of  Henri  III.  at 
the  loss  of  his  mistress — The  Court  leaves  Lyons  for  Avignon 
— Disaster  on  the  Rh&ne — At  Avignon  the  King  takes  to 
devotion  and  joins  the  Flagellants — Death  of  the  Cardinal  de 
Lorraine — Coronation  of  Henri  III. — His  marriage  with 
Louise  de  Vaudimont — The  King  endeavours  to  compel 
Fran£ois  de  Luxembourg  to  marry  a  former  mistress  of  his 
Majesty — The  Court  returns  to  Paris — Death  of  Claude  de 
Valois,  Duchess  of  Lorraine. 

ON  the  morrow  of  the  death  of  Charles  IX.,  Catherine 
wrote  to  the  new  King  :  "  Do  not  delay  your  departure 
on  any  consideration,  for  we  have  need  of  you.  You 
know  how  much  I  love  you,  and  when  I  reflect  that 
you  will  no  more  budge  from  us,  that  makes  me  remain 
patient.  The  late  King,  your  brother,  has  charged  me 
to  preserve  this  realm  for  you ;  I  shall  spare  no  endeavour 
in  my  power  to  transmit  it  to  you  intact  and  tranquil." l 
1  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  fonds  Dupuy,  published  by  M.  Charles  Merki. 

'43 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

The  Queen-Mother  exhibited  both  energy  and  ability 
in  securing  the  succession  for  her  favourite  son.  She 
made  overtures  to  La  Noue,  who  was  still  in  arms  in 
Poitou,  opened  negotiations  with  the  Rochellois,  and 
succeeded  in  persuading  d'Amville  to  return  to  his 
allegiance.  Her  task  was  facilitated  by  the  fact  that 
the  leaders  of  the  Huguenot-"  Politique  "  revolt  were 
in  her  power ;  the  Marechaux  de  Cosse  and  de  Mont- 
morency  being  safe  in  the  Bastille,  and  Alenc/m  and  Henri 
of  Navarre  under  watch  and  ward  at  Vincennes.  Conde, 
who,  some  time  before  the  beginning  of  the  rising,  had 
been  permitted  to  retire  to  his  estates,  whence  he  had  fled 
in  disguise  to  Germany,  had  alone  escaped  her  clutches. 

In  one  instance  only  did  Catherine  depart  from  the 
conciliatory  policy  which  she  had  determined  to  pursue. 
The  gallant  Montgommery  was  brought  from  Nor- 
mandy to  Paris,  tried  by  the  Parlement  for  high  treason, 
and  condemned  to  a  traitor's  death.  Placed  in  a  tumbril, 
with  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back,  he  was  conveyed  to 
the  Place  de  Greve,  and  there  beheaded  and  quartered. 
The  Queen-Mother  herself,  L'Estoile  tells  us,  witnessed 
the  execution,  "  and  was  at  length  avenged,  as  she  had 
so  long  desired,  for  the  death  of  the  late  King  Henri,  her 
husband." 

Although  Henri  de  Valois  had  only  occupied  the 
throne  of  Poland  some  nine  months,  he  was  already 
heartily  tired  of  his  kingdom,  both  the  people  and  the 
customs  of  which  were  utterly  distasteful  to  one  of  his 
indolent  and  luxurious  temperament,  and  had  been 
impatiently  awaiting  the  event  which  should  recall  him 
to  France.  So  soon,  therefore,  as  the  n'ews  of  his  brother's 
death  reached  him,1  he  quitted  his  sombre  palace  at 

*  Chemerault,  one  of  the  couriers  despatched  by  Catherine,  travelled 

'44 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Cracow,  secretly,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  accom- 
panied by  some  of  his  French  attendants,  and  fled 
ventre-a-terre  till  he  had  crossed  the  Austrian  frontier, 
while  his  people  rose  on  all  sides  to  bar  his  passage, 
and  his  nobles  galloped  in  pursuit,  without  being  able 
to  overtake  their  fugitive  sovereign.  The  explana- 
tion he  subsequently  condescended  to  give  of  this 
escapade,  was  that  the  condition  of  France  was  so 
disturbed  that  even  a  week's  delay  might  imperil  his 
succession.  Nevertheless,  instead  of  proceeding  straight 
to  Paris,  he  preferred  to  travel  by  way  of  Vienna  and 
Turin,  where  he  was  magnificently  entertained  by  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  who  retained  him  for  two  months.  In 
consequence,  it  was  the  beginning  of  September  before 
he  bade  farewell  to  the  Duke,  whose  hospitality  had  been 
extravagantly  rewarded  by  the  restoration  of  Pignerol, 
the  gate  of  Italy,  and  turned  his  steps  towards  the  dis- 
tracted kingdom  which  he  had  professed  himself  so 
impatient  to  reach. 

At  Bourgoin,  he  was  met  by  Catherine,  with  whom 
were  Marguerite  and  her  husband,  the  Due  d'Alencon, 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  Court.  The  two  princes 
had  been  set  at  liberty,  by  Henri's  orders,  Catherine 
having  first  exacted  an  oath  from  them  that  they  would 
"  neither  attempt  nor  originate  anything  to  the  detriment 
of  his  Majesty  the  King,  and  the  State  of  his  realm." 

The  meeting  between  mother  and  son  was  very 
affectionate  ;  both  had  obtained  the  summit  of  their 
ambition.  After  greeting  the  King,  Catherine  beckoned 
Henri  of  Navarre  and  Monsieur — as  Alen^on  was  now 
called — to  approach.  "  Here,"  said  she,  "  are  two 

with  such  expedition  that  he  made  the  long  journey  between  Paris  and 
Cracow  in  thirteen  days. 

'45  * 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

fantastic  persons,  whom  I  have  had  great  difficulty  in 
retaining  ;  I  hand  them  over  to  you  !  Deal  with  them 
as  you  think  fit."  His  Majesty,  at  first,  received  the 
princes  with  extreme  coldness,  and  his  looks  showed  plainly 
the  resentment  he  cherished  against  them.  They,  on 
their  side,  endeavoured  to  justify  themselves,  and  warmly 
protested  their  devotion.  After  a  while,  the  King's 
countenance  relaxed,  and  he  embraced  the  delinquents, 
exclaiming  :  "  Ah  well,  brothers !  you  are  free.  Love 
me  only,  and  love  yourselves  enough  to  reject  the  per- 
nicious counsels  which  will  be  given  you  to  the  detriment 
of  my  service,  and  which  will  end  by  ruining  you." 

Marguerite  had  assisted  at  this  family  meeting,  and, 
in  a  curious  passage  in  her  Memoires,  she  relates  the  sen- 
sations she  experienced  at  the  approach  of  her  new 
sovereign.  "  Whilst  they  [Henri  III.  and  Catherine] 
were  embracing  and  exchanging  greetings,"  she  writes, 
"  although  the  weather  was  so  hot  that,  in  the  crowd 
in  which  we  stood,  we  were  well-nigh  suffocated — I 
was  seized  with  such  a  fit  of  shivering  and  with  such 
trembling  from  head  to  foot  that  my  gentlemen-in-wait- 
ing  perceived  it,  and  I  had  great  difficulty  in  controlling 
it,  when  the  King,  turning  from  the  Queen,  my  mother, 
advanced  to  salute  me." 

The  young  Queen,  who  had  her  full  share  of  the  super- 
stition of  her  time,  though  she  never  carried  it  anything 
like  so  far  as  her  mother,  regarded  this  sudden  indis- 
position as  a  warning  of  the  sufferings  she  was  to  undergo 
during  the  reign  of  her  detested  brother ;  and  it  was 
with  a  heavy  heart  that  she  accompanied  the  Court  to 
Lyons,  into  which  city  Henri  III.  made  his  entry  on  the 
following  day  [September  6,  1574].  Nor  was  it  long 
before  her  forebodings  began  to  be  realised 

146 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

One  afternoon,  Marguerite,  accompanied  by  the 
Duchesses  de  Nevers  and  de  Retz,  Madame  de  Curton, 
who,  on  the  princess's  marriage,  had  exchanged  her  post  of 
gouvernante  for  that  of  dame  d'honneur,  and  several  other 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  went  to  visit  the  Convent  de  Saint- 
Pierre,  where  one  of  the  party  had  a  relative  among  the 
nuns.  While  the  Queen  and  her  friends  were  in  the 
convent,  her  empty  chariot,  "  easily  recognisable  from 
its  being  guilt  and  of  yellow  velvet  trimmed  with 
silver,"  remained  in  the  neighbouring  Place  des  Ter- 
reaux,  hard  by  the  lodging  of  a  gentleman,  whom 
Marguerite,  in  her  Memoires,  speaks  of  as  Bide,  but 
who,  according  to  Bassompierre,  was  the  fascinating 
Charles  de  Balzac  d'Entragues,  surnamed  le  bel 
d'Entrygues,  one  of  the  young  Queen's  most  devoted 
admirers. 

Presently,  as  ill-luck  would  have  it,  the  King  passed 
that  way,  in  company  with  Henri  of  Navarre,  his 
favourite  Fran9ois  d'O,  and  the  Marquis  de  Ruffec,  on 
their  way  to  visit  another  of  his  Majesty's  favourites, 
Quelus,  who  was  ill.  Henri  III.,  recognising  his  sister's 
chariot  and  perceiving  that  it  was  empty,  thought  the 
opportunity  to  sow  dissension  between  Marguerite  and 
her  husband  too  good  to  be  lost,  and,  turning  to  the  King 
of  Navarre,  observed  with  a  malicious  smile  :  "  Look  ! 
There  stands  your  wife's  chariot,  and  yonder  is  Bide's 
lodging.  I  warrant  she  is  there  !  "  And  he  ordered 
Ruffec,  "  who,  as  the  friend  of  Du  Guast,  was  the  proper 
instrument  for  such  malignity,"  to  enter  the  house 
and  ascertain  if  his  suspicions  were  correct.  Ruffec 
found  no  one,  but,  unwilling  to  baulk  his  master's 
design,  said  to  him,  on  his  return  :  "  The  birds  have  been 
there,  but  they  are  now  flown." 

H7 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Marguerite  tells  us  that  her  husband  "  manifested  on 
this  occasion  the  kindness  and  understanding  which  he 
always  displayed."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Bearnais 
cared  not  a  jot  about  his  wife's  gallantries,  so  long  as 
she  left  him  free  to  pursue  his  own,  and,  moreover, 
easily  divined  his  Majesty's  amiable  intentions.  But 
Henri  III.  succeeded  better  with  Catherine,  whom  he 
lost  no  time  in  acquainting  with  her  daughter's  supposed 
delinquency.  The  Queen-Mother,  "  partly  because  she 
believed  his  story,  and  partly  in  order  to  gratify  this  son, 
whom  she  idolised,"  became  exceedingly  angry,  and 
"  spoke  in  a  very  extraordinary  manner  before  some 
ladies." 

Presently,  in  blissful  ignorance  of  what  had  occurred, 
Marguerite  returned,  and  was  met  by  her  husband,  who, 
so  soon  as  he  saw  her,  began  to  laugh  and  said  :  "  Go 
to  your  mother,  and  I  am  sure  that  you  will  return  thence 
in  a  fine  rage."  She  inquired  what  he  meant,  to  which 
he  rejoined  :  "  I  shall  not  tell  you,  but  let  it  suffice  you 
that  I  believe  nothing  whatever  of  it,  and  that  they  are 
inventions,  in  order  to  deprive  me,  by  this  means,  of  the 
friendship  of  Monsieur  your  brother." 

"  Seeing  that  I  could  draw  nothing  further  from  him," 
continues  Marguerite,  "  I  repaired  to  the  apartments 
of  the  Queen  my  mother.  On  entering  the  reception- 
room,  I  encountered  M.  de  Guise,  who,  looking  to  the 
future,  was  not  sorry  for  the  division  which  was  threaten- 
ing our  House,  hoping  to  gather  up  some  spars  from 
the  wreck.  '  I  was  waiting  for  you,'  said  he,  *  to  warn  you 
that  the  Queen  credits  you  with  a  very  dangerous  form 
of  benevolence,'  and  he  then  repeated  to  me  the  fore- 
going conversation,  which  he  had  learned  from  d'O.1 

1  True  to  the  role  which  she  had  marked  out  for  herselfj  and  ol 

148 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

I  entered  the  chamber  of  the  Queen,  my  mother,  but 
she  was  not  there.  I  found  Madame  de  Nemours  and 
all  the  other  princesses  and  ladies,  who  cried  out :  '  Mon 
Difut  Madame!  the  Queen  your  mother  is  terribly 
enraged  against  you.  I  do  not  advise  you  to  present 
yourself  before  her.' 

" '  No,'  I  replied,  ( not  if  I  had  done  what  the  King 
has  told  her.  But,  since  I  am  wholly  innocent,  I  must 
speak  to  her,  in  order  to  enlighten  her  upon  the  subject.' 3 

She  then  relates  how,  fortified  by  the  consciousness 
of  her  innocence,  she  entered  the  Queen-Mother's  cabinet, 
which  was  only  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  room  by 
a  thin  partition,  so  that  every  word  that  was  spoken  there 
could  be  distinctly  heard  by  those  without.  No  sooner 
did  Catherine  catch  sight  of  her  daughter,  than  she 
"  began  to  open  fire,  and  to  say  everything  that  it  was 
possible  for  extreme  and  ungovernable  anger  to  fling 
forth."  In  vain  the  unfortunate  princess  protested 
that  she  was  the  vicitm  of  a  shameful  calumny  ;  in  vain 
she  invoked  the  evidence  of  the  persons  who  had  accom- 
panied her  to  the  Couvent  de  Saint-Pierre,  and  had  not 
quitted  her  during  the  whole  of  the  afternoon.  Catherine 
"  had  no  ears  for  either  truth  or  reason,"  and  continued 
"  scolding,  raging,  and  threatening  "  ;  and  when  Mar- 
guerite boldly  declared  her  conviction  that  it  was  the 
King  himself  whom  she  must  thank  for  this  ill-turn, 
she  became  more  angry  than  ever,  and  asserted  that  "  it 
was  one  of  her  own  lackeys  who  had  acquainted  her 
with  the  facts." 

Beside  herself  with  grief  and  indignation,  Marguerite 

which  we  have  spoken  elsewhere,  Marguerite  here  refuses  to  recognise 
the  kindly  feeling  towards  the  princess  to  whose  hand  he  had  once 
aspired  which  had  obviously  prompted  Guise's  action. 

149 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

left  her  mother  and  returned  to  her  own  apartments. 
Here  she  found  her  husband,  who  good-naturedly 
endeavoured  to  console  her,  pointing  out  that  she  had 
too  many  credible  witnesses  on  her  side  not  to  be  able  to 
establish  very  speedily  her  innocence.  This  was,  indeed, 
what  happened  ;  for  next  day  Catherine  sent  for  her 
daughter,  and  confessed  that  she  had  been  misinformed, 
throwing  all  the  blame  on  the  afore-mentioned  lackey, 
whom  she  had  discovered  to  be  a  bad  man,  and  had 
decided  to  dismiss  from  her  service.  Then,  perceiving, 
by  Marguerite's  manner,  that  this  stratagem  was  not 
succeeding,  she  employed  every  means  to  disabuse  her 
of  the  idea  that  the  King  was  the  originator  of  the 
slander.  But  the  princess  was  still  unconvinced,  when 
his  Majesty  himself  entered,  and  proceeded  to  offer  her 
"  all  the  excuses  and  protestations  of  friendship  that  were 
possible."  These  demonstrations,  though  but  little 
sincere,  were,  of  course,  followed  by  a  reconciliation, 
which,  at  least,  procured  Marguerite  a  short  respite  from 
the  persecutions  of  her  despicable  brother.1 

On  their  side,  the  King  of  Navarre  and  Alenc.on  were 
received  into  some  degree  of  favour,  and  Henri  III.  not 
only  ceased  to  treat  them  with  suspicion,  but  even 
assumed  an  affectionate  attitude  towards  them,  and 
would  frequently  appear  in  public  with  the  princes  and 
his  sister,  in  order  to  encourage  the  belief  that  peace  and 
harmony  were  once  more  established  in  the  Royal  Family. 
On  All  Saints'  Day,  the  three  princes  communicated 
publicly  at  the  same  Mass,  and,  before  receiving  the  con- 
secrated wafers,  Alen^on  and  Navarre  renewed  the  oath 
which  they  had  taken  on  their  liberation,  "  protesting 
to  the  King  their  fidelity,  and  swearing,  by  the  place 

1  Memtirei  et  lettres  <te  Marguerite  de  Va/ois  (edit.  Guessard) 

150 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

to  which  they  aspired  in  Paradise,  and  by  the  God  whom 
they  were  about  to  receive,  to  be  faithful  to  him  and  to 
his  State  (as  they  had  ever  been),  to  the  last  drop  of  their 
blood."  l  But  even  the  most  solemn  oaths  counted  for 
very  little  in  those  days. 

The  festivities  which  marked  the  sojourn  of  the  Court 
at  Lyons  were  interrupted  by  two  sad  events.  The  first 
was  the  death  of  Marguerite  de  Valois,  Duchess  of  Savoy, 
the  Queen  of  Navarre's  aunt  and  godmother ;  the 
second,  the  untimely  end  of  Marie  de  Cleves,  the  young 
Princesse  de  Conde,  who  died  in  childbed  in  Paris. 
Henri  III.  exhibited  the  most  extravagant  grief  at  the 
death  of  his  mistress,  to  whom  he  had  written  letters 
from  Poland  in  his  own  blood.2  On  learning  the  news, 
he  fell  to  the  ground  in  a  swoon,  and  was  carried  to  his 
apartments,  which  he  caused  to  be  draped  in  black  velvet, 
and  where  he  remained  shut  up  for  several  days,  for  the 
first  two  of  which  he  refused  to  touch  either  food  or  wine. 
When  he,  at  length,  reappeared,  he  was  clad  in  the 
deepest  mourning,  and  the  points  of  his  doublet  and 
even  the  ribbons  of  his  shoes  were  garnished  with  little 
death's-heads. 

Shortly  afterwards,  the  Court  quitted  Lyons  for 
Avignon,  under  the  pretext  of  affording  the  grief-stricken 
King  some  distraction,  but,  in  reality,  with  the  object 
of  opening  negotiations  with  d'Amville,3  Montbrun,  and 

*  L'Estoile. 

2  To  such  lengths  did  he  carry  his  passion  for  this  lady  that  during 
the  siege  of  La  Rochelle,  in  the  winter  of  1572-1573,  he  is  said  to  have 
contemplated  treating  the  poor  Prince  de  Cond6  as  David  treated  Uriah 
the  Hittite,  in  order  that  he  might  espouse  his  Bathsheba. 

3  D'Amville,  whom,  on  the  death  of  Charles  IX.,  Catherine  had  per- 
suaded to  return  momentarily  to  her  allegiance,  had  been  again  alienated 
by  the  despicable  conduct  of  the  new  King.     During  Henri's  visit  to 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

the  leaders  of  the  Huguenots  of  Dauphine.  The  King, 
the  Queen-Mother,  and  most  of  the  Court  made  the 
journey,  in  barges,  along  the  Rhone.  This  proved  a  most 
unfortunate  decision,  for  one  barge,  containing  a  large 
part  of  the  baggage  of  the  Royal  Family  and  a  great 
quantity  of  valuable  plate  and  specie,  was  so  absurdly 
overloaded  that  it  capsized  and  sank,  and  Alphonse  de 
Gondi,  the  Queen  of  Navarre's  maitre  d'botd,  and  more 
than  twenty  persons  were  drowned. 

The  sojourn  of  the  Court  at  Avignon  was  as  gloomy 
as  that  at  Lyons  had  been  pleasant.  The  sudden  death 
of  the  Princesse  de  Conde  had  occasioned  a  remarkable 
change  in  the  humour  of  Henri  III.,  and  whereas,  since 
his  arrival  in  France,  he  had  been  the  life  and  soul  of 
every  fe'te  and  pleasure-party,  he  now  plunged  into  the 
most  extravagant  devotion.  He  was  particularly  struck 
by  the  proceedings  of  the  Flagellants,  a  sect  very  strong 
in  Avignon,  who,  dressed  in  sackcloth,  nightly  paraded 
the  streets  of  the  papal  city,  by  torchlight,  chanting  the 
Miserere,  and  scourging  one  another  with  whips.  Nothing 
would  content  him  but  to  become  a  Flagellant,  too,  and 
he  accordingly  enrolled  himself  in  the  confraternity 
of  the  "  Blancs-JBattus"  The  Royal  Family  and  the 
Court  were  compelled  to  follow  suit ;  Catherine  joined 
the  black  penitents ;  the  Cardinals  de  Lorraine  and 
d'Armagnac,  the  blue ;  while  Monsieur,  Marguerite, 

Turin,  the  Duke  of  Savoy  had  urged  him  to  conciliate  the  "  Politiques " 
and  to  re-establish  peace  by  moderate  concessions  to  the  Huguenots,  and 
had  invited  d'Amville  to  come  and  confer  with  his  sovereign.  The 
marshal  came,  and  Henri  tried  to  persuade  his  host  to  allow  him  to  be 
arrested.  D'Amville,  however,  was  warned  to  be  on  his  guard,  and 
hastily  returned  to  Languedoc,  where  he  at  once  formed  a  closer  alli- 
ance with  the  Huguenots.  In  1577  he  finally  threw  in  his  lot  with  the 
Royalist  cause. 

152 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  even  Henri  of  Navarre,  who  lent  himself  with  marvel- 
lous suppleness  to  all  the  exigencies  of  his  difficult  role, 
might  have  been  seen  in  these  lugubrious  processions. 
The  appearance  of  the  mocking  little  Bearnais  in  hood 
and  sackcloth  proved,  however,  too  much  for  Henri  III.'s 
sense  of  humour,  and  he  could  not  restrain  his  laughter. 

These  ridiculous  proceedings  had  one  important 
result.  The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  unaccustomed  to 
such  mortification  of  the  flesh,  was  attacked  by  a  fever, 
which  in  a  few  days  proved  fatal,  to  the  open  joy  of  the 
Protestants,  and  the  secret  relief  of  the  King  and  Cather- 
ine, who  considered  themselves  well  rid  of  a  very  embarras- 
sing personality.  On  the  day  of  his  death,  Avignon  was 
visited  by  a  violent  storm,  which  caused  the  Huguenots 
to  declare  that  the  cardinal  had  been  carried  off  by  the 
devil,  "  since  something  more  violent  than  the  wind 
tore  down  and  whirled  off  into  the  air  the  lattices  and 
window-bars  of  the  house  where  he  lodged." 

On  January  4,  1575,  the  Court  left  Avignon  and  took 
the  road  to  Rheims,  where,  since  the  time  of  Clovis, 
the  Kings  of  France  had  been  crowned.  Rheims  was 
reached  on  February  n,  1575,  and,  two  days  later, 
the  coronation  took  place,  in  the  ancient  castle  of  Saint- 
Remi.  The  superstitious — and  who  was  not  super- 
stitious in  the  sixteenth  century  ? — observed  that  more 
than  one  evil  omen  marked  the  ceremony.  When  the 
crown  was  placed  on  Henri's  head,  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Rheims,  the  monarch  was  heard  to  exclaim  that  it  hurt 
him,  and  twice  the  diadem  tottered  and  slipped  from 
his  brow.  It  was  also  remarked  that  the  Master  of  the 
Ceremonies  forgot  the  kiss  of  peace,  and  that  the 
choristers  omitted  to  chant  the  Te  Deum. 

Three  days  after  his  coronation,  Henri,  who  appears 

153 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

to  have  made  a  singularly  rapid  recovery  from  the  grief 
which  the  death  of  poor  Marie  de  Cleves  had  occasioned 
him,  married  the  sweet  and  charming  Louise  de  Lorraine, 
daughter  of  Nicolas,  Comte  de  Vaudemont,  and  Mar- 
guerite d'Egmont,  whom  he  had  seen  at  Nancy,  when  he 
was  on  his  way  to  Poland.  The  King's  choice  created 
some  surprise,  for  not  only  was  the  rank  of  his  bride 
very  far  below  his  own,  but  her  elevation  considerably 
increased  the  credit  of  her  relatives,  the  Guises.  How- 
ever, in  the  eyes  of  the  Queen-Mother,  who  had  warmly 
favoured  the  match,  these  disadvantages  were  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  the  fact  that  the  new  Queen,  like 
Charles  IX.'s  consort,  Elizabeth  of  Austria,  was  a  simple- 
minded  girl,  entirely  without  ambition,  and  not  in  the 
least  likely  to  dispute  the  empire  which  Catherine 
exercised  over  her  son's  mind. 

Although  Mile,  de  Vaudemont — or  rather,  her  parents 
— had  accepted  with  becoming  gratitude  the  King  of 
France's  gracious  offer,  her  affections  were  engaged 
elsewhere,  Francois  de  Luxembourg  being  the  man  of 
her  choice.  The  prince  in  question  had  attended  the 
coronation  and  the  marriage,  a  step  which  he  speedily 
had  cause  to  regret ;  for,  a  day  or  two  after  the  latter 
ceremony,  Henri  III.  drew  him  aside  and  said  :  "  Cousin, 
I  have  married  your  mistress  ;  but  I  desire  that,  in 
exchange,  you  should  marry  mine."  And  he  commanded 
him  to  espouse  Renee  de  Chateauneuf,  a  bright  and 
shining  light  of  the  Queen-Mother's  "  escadron  volant" 
whose  favours  his  Majesty  had  formerly  enjoyed.  Luxem- 
bourg, making,  very  naturally,  a  distinction  beween 
the  two  senses  attached  to  the  word  "  mistress,"  thanked 
the  King  for  his  thoughtfulness,  but  begged  to  be 
excused.  His  Majesty,  however,  would  take  no  refusal, 

154 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

and  insisted  that  the  marriage  should  take  place  that 
very  day.  The  unfortunate  prince  then  "  begged  very 
humbly  that  the  King  would  grant  him  a  week's  respite." 
To  which  Henri  replied  that  he  would  give  him  three 
days  only,  at  the  expiration  of  which,  if  he  were  not 
prepared  to  marry  the  damsel,  something  exceedingly 
unpleasant  would  probably  befall  him.  Long  before 
the  three  days  had  passed,  however,  Luxembourg  had 
placed  many  a  league  between  himself  and  the  King's 
wrath.1 

The  Queen  of  Navarre  assisted  at  the  coronation 
and  marriage,  and  accompanied  the  Court  to  Paris,  into 
which  the  new  King  and  his  bride  made  their  entry  on 
February  17,  1575.  The  rejoicings  which  followed 
were  interrupted  by  the  news  of  the  death  of  Claude  de 
Valois,  Duchess  of  Lorraine,  who  fell  a  victim,  as  so  many 
unfortunate  women  did  in  those  days,  to  the  clumsiness 
and  ignorance  of  the  surgeons  who  attended  her  in  her 
confinement.  Marguerite  sincerely  mourned  the  loss  of 
her  sister,  between  whom  and  herself  there  had  always 
existed  a  strong  affection,  which  family  dissensions  had 
been  powerless  to  destroy.  Of  the  ten  children  whom 
Catherine  de'  Medici  had  borne  Henri  II.,  three  only  now 
remained  :  the  King,  Marguerite,  and  the  Due  d'Alengon. 

1  Before  his  departure  for  Poland,  Henri  had  tried  to  marry  Mile,  de 
Chateauneuf  to  Nant6uillet,  the  Provost  of  Paris.  The  provost,  how- 
ever, declined  the  honour,  and  persisted  in  his  refusal,  notwithstanding 
a  sound  horsewhipping  which  the  rejected  beauty  administered  to  him 
in  public.  This  lady  finally  succeeded  in  finding  a  husband  in  the 
person  of  a  Florentine  named  Antinoti,  who  was  intendant  of  the  galleys 
at  Marseilles,  "and  having  detected  him  in  a  compromising  situation 
with  another  demoiselle,  stabbed  him  bravely  and  manfully  with  her  own 
hand."  L'Estoile,  who  relates  this  episode,  entitles  it;  "  Acte  genertux 
pour  une  dame  de  son  metier" 

155 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Her  third  son,  Louis,  and  the  twins,  Victoire  and  Jeanne, 
had  died  in  infancy ;  Francois  II.  in  his  eighteenth  year ; 
Elizabeth,  the  young  Queen  of  Spain,  and  Charles  IX., 
in  their  twenty-fourth,  and  the  Duchess  of  Lorraine 
in  her  twenty-eighth.  And  of  the  survivors,  Marguerite 
alone  was  destined  to  reach  the  prime  of  life. 


156 


CHAPTER  XI 

Character  of  Henri  III. — His  follies  and  extravagances— H'u 
"mignins" — Enmity  between  the  Qusen  of  Navarre  and  Da 
Guast — Madame  de  Sauve — Instigated  by  Du  Guast,  she  works 
to  sow  dissension  between  Monsieur  and  Henry  of  Navarre, 
and  between  the  latter  and  his  wife — Bussy  d'Amboise^— 
Marguerite  accused  by  Du  Guast  and  Henri  HI.  of  carrying 
on  a  liaison  with  him — Question  of  their  relations  considered 
— Du  Guast,  with  the  sanction  of  the  King,  lays  an  ambuscade 
for  Bussy,  who,  however,  escapes  unhurt— The  Queen-Mother 
persuades  Alen^on  to  advise  Bussy  to  withdraw  from  Court— 
Violent  quarrel  between  the  King  and  Queen  of  Navarre. 

"  MJJOR  privato  visus,  dum  privates  fait,  et  omnium  con- 
sensu  capax  imperii,  nisi  imperasset,"  so  wrote  Tacitus 
of  the  Emperor  Galba,  and  his  words  might  be  applied 
with  equal  force  to  the  last  of  the  Valois  kings.  Henri  III 
had  gifts  which,  as  we  have  said  elsewhere,  might,  in  a 
different  age  and  with  a  different  training,  have  made  of 
him  a  shrewd  and  capable  ruler.  He  could  become, 
when  it  suited  his  purpose,  almost  as  fine  an  "  actor  of 
royalty  "  as  was  Louis  XIV. ;  he  could  apeak  with  weight 
and  dignity,  and  even  with  eloquence ;  he  had  insight 
into  men  and  things,  and  some  of  his  instructions  to  his 
Ambassadors  at  foreign  Courts  are  models  of  perspicacity 
and  sound  reasoning  ;  while,  on  more  than  one  occasion, 
as,  for  example,  when  he  rebuked  the  arrogant  preten- 
sions of  Philip  II.,  he  showed  a  really  high  sense  of  bis 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

kingly  dignity.1  But  the  baneful  influence  of  his  mother, 
and  the  evil  atmosphere  amidst  which  he  had  been  brought 
up,  had  corrupted  his  whole  nature  and  left  him  almost 
entirely  destitute  of  a  moral  sense  ;  and  his  reign  is  one 
miserable  record  of  lost  opportunities,  of  abilities  neg- 
lected or  misapplied,  of  puerile  follies,  of  shameful 
profligacy,  and  of  devotional  excesses  scarcely  more  serious 
or  more  decent  than  his  debaucheries,  of  duplicity, 
trickery,  and  senseless  extravagance. 

The  conduct  of  the  King  astonished  and  irritated 
his  subjects ;  soon  he  was  not  only  disliked  but  despised. 
What  could  be  thought  of  a  sovereign — to  mention  only 
his  follies — who,  when  his  country  was  torn  by  internal 
dissensions  and  hastening  towards  bankruptcy,  could  keep 
his  Council  waiting  for  hours  while  he  dressed  his  wife's 
hair  or  starched  her  ruffs ;  who  appeared  at  a  Court  ball, 
his  face  rouged  and  powdered,  the  body  of  his  doublet 
cut  low,  like  a  woman's,  with  long  sleeves  falling  to  the 
ground,  and  a  string  of  pearls  round  his  neck,  "  so  that 
one  did  not  know,"  says  d'Aubigne,  "  whether  it  was  a 
woman-king  or  a  man-queen  "  ;  who  gave  audience  to 
Ambassadors  with  a  basketful  of  puppies  suspended  from 

1  In  1582,  after  Philip  II.  had  usurped  the  throne  of  Portugal,  he 
insolently  demanded  that  the  Prior  of  Crato,  his  defeated  rival  for  the 
Crown,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  France,  should  be  delivered  up  or  at 
least  expelled  from  Henri's  dominions.  To  which  the  French  King 
boldly  replied  that  *'  he  was  not  less  a  king  than  Philip  II.,  and  in  no 
way  dependent  upon  him  ;  that  France  was  the  asylum  of  the  unfortu- 
nate, and  that  the  Prior  of  Crato  should  remain  there  so  long  as  he 
pleased."  Not  long  afterwards,  during  a  terrible  storm,  one  of  the 
Spanish  galleys  was  wrecked  off  the  coast  of  France,  and  a  number  of 
the  slaves,  who  had  escaped  to  the  shore,  implored  the  King's  protec- 
tion. Philip  imperiously  demanded  their  extradition,  but  was  met 
with  the  reply  that  "  the  soil  of  France  liberated  all  those  who  touched 
it" 

158 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

his  neck  by  a  broad  silk  ribbon  ;  who  might  be  seen 
playing  Cup  and  Ball  with  his  courtiers  in  the  streets, 
and  who  wasted  immense  sums,  borrowed  at  usurious 
interest  from  Italian  bankers  or  wrung  from  his  unhappy 
people,  on  balls,  fe'tes,  and  masquerades,1  or  in  purchasing 
jewellery  and  curios  at  extravagant  prices  ? 

But  it  was  the  King's  favourites — his  odious  "  mig- 
nons  " — who  especially  exasperated  the  people,  and  ended 
by  changing  their  dislike  and  contempt  into  hatred  and 
disgust.  The  original  idea  of  these  mignons  was  to  counter- 
balance the  power  of  the  great  nobles,  whom  Henri  feared 
and  distrusted,  by  men  who  should  owe  their  fortune 
entirely  to  his  favour,  and,  as  such,  had  something  to  re- 
commend it.  But,  though  a  few  of  his  later  favourites, 
such  as  d'Epernon  and  Joyeuse,  were  men  of  considerable 
ability,  and  rendered  the  King  good  service,  the  majority 
of  the  earlier  ones,  chosen  only  for  their  good  looks,  their 
elegance,  and  their  personal  courage,  were  men  of  evil 
lives,  who  disgusted  all  classes  by  their  insolence,  violence, 
and  debauchery.  "  From  1576  their  name  of  *  mignonsj 
says  L'Estoile,  "  began  to  be  heard  in  the  mouths  of  the 
people,  to  whom  they  were  very  odious,  both  on  account 
of  their  way  of  behaving  and  their  effeminate  and  im- 
modest dress ;  but,  above  all,  because  of  the  immense 

1  At  the  Carnival  of  1577,  Henri  had  given  orders  for  festivities  that 
would  have  entailed  the  expenditure  of  some  200,000  livres,  the  equiva- 
lent of  nearly  two  million  francs  in  money  of  to-day  ;  but  the  death  of 
his  father-in-law,  Nicolas,  Comte  de  Vaudemont,  threw  the  Court  into 
mourning  and  caused  the  fetes  to  be  abandoned.  In  the  spring  of  the 
following  year,  his  Majesty  gave  a  banquet  to  his  brother  and  the  nobles 
and  gentlemen  who  had  accompanied  him  to  the  siege  of  La  Charite. 
At  this  banquet,  the  guests  were  waited  on  by  ladies,  dressed,  like  men,  in 
costumes  of  green  silk,  which  are  said  to  have  cost  upwards  of  60,000 
livres. 

159 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

gifts  and  favours  which  the  King  lavished  upon  them, 
which  the  people  held  to  be  the  cause  of  their  ruin.  .  .  . 
These  fine  mignons  wore  their  hair  long,  curled,  and 
frizzled,  under  little  velvet  caps,  as  is  the  custom  of  the 
courtesans ;  and  their  ruffs  starched  and  half  a  foot  wide, 
so  that  when  one  beheld  the  head  above  the  ruff,  it 
resembled  the  head  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  on  a  charger. 
.  .  .  Their  practices  were  gambling,  blasphemy,  dancing, 
quarrelling,  and  wenching,  and  following  the  King 
wherever  he  went."  * 

The  most  obnoxious  of  all  Henri  III.'s  early  favourites 
was  Du  Guast,  the  gentleman  who  had  been  the  author 
of  Marguerite  de  Valois's  quarrel  with  her  brother,  and 
of  the  rupture  of  her  love-affair  with  the  Due  de  Guise, 
since  which  he  had  not  ceased  working  to  embitter  his 
master's  mind  against  her.  Du  Guast  had  accompanied 
Henri  to  Poland,2  and  since  the  latter  had  become  King 
of  France,  the  favourite's  influence  over  him  seemed 
greater  than  ever.  Naturally  insolent  and  haughty, 
his  good  fortune  seemed  to  have  turned  his  head,  and 
rendered  him  insupportable  to  all  save  his  royal  patron. 
"  He  dared  to  place  himself  on  an  equality  with  the 
greatest  personages,"  writes  de  Thou,  "  even  going  the 
length  of  treating  them  sometimes  as  if  they  had  been 
beneath  him,  and  did  not  spare  the  first  ladies  of  the 
Court,  whose  reputations  he  publicly  assailed,  often  in 
the  presence  of  his  Majesty  ;  and  he  even  had  the  impu- 
dence to  turn  his  slanders  in  the  direction  of  an  illustrious 
princess  [Marguerite]." 

1  The  name  of  the  mignons  survived  them  ;  the  mistresses  of  Henri  IV, 
were  known  as  the  King's  " mignonnes" 

2  Marguerite  says  that  he  remained  in  France  in  order  to  keep  her 
brother's  party  together,  but  from  the  testimony  of  Brant6me    and 
other  chroniclers,  it  is  evident  that  her  memory  is  here  at  fault. 

160 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Du  Guast,  indeed,  pursued  the  Queen  of  Navarre 
with  a  persistent  malignity  for  which  it  is  difficult  to 
account,  unless  on  the  supposition  that  he  had  been  an 
unsuccessful  admirer.  In  justice  to  him,  however,  it 
should  be  mentioned  that  Marguerite  had  fully  recipro- 
cated his  hatred,  had  treated  him  in  public  with  the 
utmost  contempt,  and  had  scornfully  rejected  all  attempts 
on  his  part  to  conciliate  her.  Brantome  relates  that, 
shortly  before  the  death  of  Charles  IX.,  Du  Guast, 
entrusted  by  the  King  of  Poland  with  some  confidential 
mission,  arrived  in  France,  and  presented  himself 
before  the  princess,  to  hand  her  a  letter  from  her 
brother.  Upon  which  the  Queen  of  Navarre  angrily 
exclaimed  :  "  This  letter  serves  you  as  your  safeguard. 
Were  it  not  for  this,  I  would  teach  you  to  speak 
differently  of  a  princess  such  as  I  am,  sister  of  two 
kings,  your  sovereigns." 

"  I  am  well  aware  that  you  wish  me  ill,"  replied  Du 
Guast,  "  but  be  kind  and  generous,  for  love  of  my 
master,  and  hear  me."  He  then  sought  to  excuse  himself 
and  denied  the  slanders  imputed  to  him,  but  without 
being  able  to  convince  Marguerite,  who  dismissed  him 
with  a  gesture  of  disdain,  exclaiming  :  "  I  shall  always 
be  your  mortal  enemy  !  " 

Du  Guast  accepted  this  imprudent  challenge,  and  no 
sooner  had  Henri  III.  returned  to  France,  than  he  com- 
menced hostilities.  His  object  was  to  put  an  end  to  the 
good  understandings  which  reigned  between  Marguerite 
and  her  husband,  and  between  the  latter  and  Alenc, on, which 
the  Queen  of  Navarre  used  every  endeavour  to  maintain. 
By  this  means,  he  would  not  only  gratify  his  own  malice, 
but  serve  the  interests  of  his  master,  since  it  was  of  the 
highest  importance  to  the  King  and  Catherine  to  prevent 

161  L 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

any  concerted  action  between  the  chiefs  of  the  Huguenots 
and  of  the  disaffected  Catholics. 

He  found  an  invaluable  auxiliary  ready  to  his  hand 
in  the  person  of  Charlotte  de  Beaune,  Baronne  de  Sauve,1 
lady-of-honour  to  the  Queen-Mother,  and  perhaps,  the 
most  corrupt  woman  of  the  Court.  Inferior  in  beauty 
to  Marguerite,  Madame  de  Sauve  was  greatly  her  superior 
in  knowledge  of  life  and  the  conduct  of  her  numerous 
gallantries.  "  She  exercised  over  all  her  lovers,"  says 
Mezeray,  "  so  absolute  an  empire  that  she  never  lost 
one  of  them,  but,  on  the  contrary,  constantly  acquired 
new  ones."  Though  she  possessed  both  beauty  and 
intelligence,  she  was  capable  neither  of  constancy  nor 
attachment ;  loving  through  vanity,  by  calculation,  and 
often  by  the  orders  of  the  Queen-Mother  ;  for  she  was 
"  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  those  facile  beauties 
whom  Catherine  employed  to  seduce  the  chiefs  of 
faction,  to  retain  them  in  a  voluptuous  idleness,  or  to 
rob  them  of  their  secrets."2  During  the  visit  of  the 
Court  to  Lyons,  she  had  become  the  mistress  of  Henri 
of  Navarre,  though  he  was  very  far  from  being  the  sole 
possessor  of  her  charms.  His  brother-in-law,  Alen^on, 
was  equally  her  slave ;  while  Guise,  Du  Guast,  and 

1  She  was  the  wife  of  Simon  de  Fizes,  Baron  de  Sauve,  Secretary  of 
State  under  Charles  IX.  and  Henri  III.  After  the  death  of  her  first 
husband,  in  1579,  she  married  Francois  de  la  Tr^mouille,  Marquis  de 
Noirmoutier.  She  retained  her  fascination  until  long  past  her  first 
youth,  and  it  was  with  her  that  the  Due  de  Guise  spent  his  last  night 
on  earth,  before  falling  under  the  daggers  of  the  "  Quarante-Cittf."  A 
portrait  of  Madame  de  Sauve  is  preserved  in  the  Cabinet  des  Estampes, 
and  has  been  reproduced  in  this  volume.  The  face  is  pretty,  but 
sensual  and  cunning.  "  11  y  a  de  la  chatte  dans  sa  bouche  mignonne"  re- 
marks La  Ferriere. 

*  Comte  L6o  de  Saint-Poncy,  Margufrite  de  Valois,  i.  192, 

162 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Souvre,1  another  of  the  King's  mignons,  also  participated 
in  her  favours. 

Instigated  by  Du  Guast,  this  dangerous  siren  em- 
ployed all  her  wiles  to  excite  Navarre  and  Monsieur  to 
jealousy  of  one  another,  and  succeeded  but  too  well. 
The  former,  in  spite  of  his  shrewdness,  the  latter,  not- 
withstanding Marguerite's  warnings,  fell  into  the  snare 
spread  for  them  ;  soon  they  were  in  open  and  declared 
rivalry.  "  To  such  a  pitch  of  violence,"  writes  Mar- 
guerite, "  did  she  work  up  the  passion  of  my  brother 
and  my  husband  that,  forgetful  of  every  other  ambition, 
duty  and  object  in  life,  the  sole  idea  in  their  minds  seemed 
to  be  the  pursuit  of  this  woman.  Moreover,  they  thereby 
arrived  at  so  great  and  furious  a  jealousy  of  one  another, 
that,  although  she  was  sought  by  several  others,  who 
were  all  better  beloved  by  her  than  they  were,  these 
two  brothers-in-law  paid  no  attention  to  this,  but  only 
dreaded  each  other's  courtship." 

Having  contrived  to  embroil  the  two  princes  and  thus, 
for  the  time  being,  effectually  prevent  any  concerted 
action  between  them  in  the  political  arena,  Madame  de 
Sauve,  "  aided  by  the  diabolical  cunning  of  Du  Guast," 
devoted  herself  to  the  task  of  estranging  the  King  of 
Navarre  from  his  wife.  To  this  end,  she  persuaded  him 
that,  stung  by  jealousy,  Marguerite  was  favouring 
Alen^on's  suit,  which  so  angered  the  enamoured  prince 
that  not  only  did  he  withdraw  all  his  confidence  from 
his  wife,  but  "  gave  up  speaking  to  her  altogether." 

Far  from  satisfied  with  the  success  which  had  attended 
the  machinations  of  himself  and  his  ally,  Du  Guast  had 
meanwhile  been  keeping  a  watchful  eye  on  Marguerite's 

1  Gilles  de  Souvre,  Marquis  de  Courtenvaux.  In  his  old  age,  he  was 
gpuverneur  of  Louis  XIII. 

163 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

conduct ;  and  his  joy  was  great  when  he  detected  her  in 
a  liaison  with  Bussy  d'Amboise,  immortalised  by  the  elder 
Dumas  in  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  his  romances, 
la  Dame  de  Montsoreau. 

Robert  de  Clermont,  Sieur  de  Bussy  d'Amboise,  is 
one  of  the  most  perfect  types  of  those  elegant,  audacious, 
swashbuckling  favourites  in  whom  the  Court  of  the  last 
Valois  was  so  prolific.  His  handsome  face,  his  haughty 
bearing,  the  elegance  of  his  dress,  his  caustic  wit,  his 
duels,  and  his  amours  inspired  positive  enthusiasm.  The 
women  adored  him  ;  the  men  regarded  him  with  mingled 
fear  and  admiration.  TheMemoires  of  the  time  are  full 
of  his  praises.  To  Brantome  he  is  "le  non-pair  de  son  temps," 
the  ideal  knight,  the  model  of  paladins,  the  last  represen- 
tative of  the  chivalry  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  austere 
lawyer  de  Thou,  and  the  rigid  Calvinist  d'Aubigne, 
while  censuring  his  morals,  do  not  fail  to  render  justice 
to  his  brilliant  qualities ;  though  the  latter  regrets  that 
he  should  have  employed  his  valour  "  more  in  biting 
the  dogs  of  the  hunt  than  the  wolves."  And  L'Estoile 
shows  him  to  us  animated  by  "  an  invincible  courage, 
proud  and  audacious,  as  valiant  as  his  sword,  and  as  worthy 
to  command  an  army  as  any  captain  in  France."  How- 
ever, he  reproaches  him  with  having  been  "  vicious  and 
with  having  little  fear  of  God,"  and  he  would  appear 
to  have  been  quarrelsome,  debauched,  avaricious,  and 
without  any  scruples  worth  mentioning.1 

Bussy  had  been  originally  a  favourite  of  the  King, 
and  had  accompanied  Henri  to  Poland.  But,  on  the 
latter's  accession  to  the  French  throne,  he  took  offence 

1  During  the  St.  Bartholomew,  he  profited  by  the  general  massacre 
to  murder  his  cousin,  Antoine  de  Clermont,  with  whom  he  was  engaged 
in  a  law-suit. 

164 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

at  some  slight  which  he  had  received,  and  attached  himself 
to  Alengon,  who  appointed  him  his  chamberlain  and, 
according  to  L'Estoile,  reposed  such  unbounded  con- 
fidence in  him  that  he  gave  him  the  key  of  his  coffers, 
and  allowed  him  to  help  himself  to  their  contents  when- 
ever he  pleased. 

"  When  we  were  in  Paris,"  relates  Marguerite,  "  my 
brother  appointed  Bussy  to  attend  him,  holding  him  in 
the  high  esteem  which  his  valour  merited.  He  was 
continually  in  my  brother's  company  and,  in  consequence, 
in  mine  ;  my  brother  and  I  being  almost  always  together, 
and  he  having  given  orders  to  his  attendants  to  honour 
and  obey  me  no  less  than  himself.  Du  Guast,  however, 
putting  a  different  construction  upon  it,  thought  that 
Fortune  offered  him  a  fine  opportunity,  and  having, 
through  Madame  de  Sauve,  insinuated  himself  into  the 
good  graces  of  the  King  my  husband,  he  endeavoured 
by  every  means  in  his  power  to  persuade  him  that  Bussy 
was  my  lover." 

The  Bearnais,  however,  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  Du 
Guast,  though  not,  in  all  probability,  as  Marguerite 
would  have  us  believe,  because  he  did  not  credit  the 
accusation,  but  because  it  was  a  matter  of  supreme  in- 
difference to  him  whether  his  wife  had  one  or  a  dozen 
gallants.  Thereupon,  the  worthy  Du  Guast  carried  his 
tale  to  Henri  III.,  "  whom,"  says  Marguerite,  "  he 
found  more  easy  to  persuade,  as  much  on  account  of  the 
little  good-will  he  bore  my  brother  and  myself,  our  friend- 
ship being  suspicious  and  odious  in  his  eyes,  as  because 
of  his  hatred  of  Bussy,  who  having  formerly  been  in  his 
service,  had  quitted  it,  in  order  to  devote  himself  to 
my  brother." 

The  King  lost  no  time  in  informing  the  Queen-Mother, 

165 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

whom  he  advised  to  remonstrate  with  Henri  of  Navarre 
on  his  wife's  conduct,  and  strove  to  incite  to  the  same 
indignation  which  she  had  displayed  at  Lyons.  But 
Catherine  preferred  to  work  in  the  shadow,  and  not  to 
enter  into  open  hostility  with  any  one,  and  had  no  mind 
to  risk  a  second  mistake,  which  could  not  fail  to  exasperate 
her  daughter.  She,  therefore,  declined  to  interfere, 
and,  if  we  are  to  believe  Marguerite,  said  to  the  King : 
"  I  know  not  who  the  mischief-makers  are  who  put  such 
ideas  into  your  head.  My  daughter  is  unfortunate  to 
have  been  born  in  such  times.  In  our  day,  we  spoke 
freely  to  every  one,  and  your  uncles,  M.  le  Dauphin  a 
and  M.  d'Orleans,  were  constantly  in  the  bed-chamber 
of  your  aunt,  Madame  Marguerite,2  and  myself ;  and  no 
one  thought  it  strange,  nor  indeed  was  there  any  reason 
why  they  should.  Bussy  sees  my  daughter  before  you, 
before  her  husband,  and  before  her  husband's  people, 
in  her  chamber,  and  before  every  one  ;  not  in  secret  or 
with  closed  doors.  Bussy  is  a  person  of  quality  and  your 
brother's  first  gentleman-in-waiting !  What  is  there 
to  complain  of  in  this  ?  Do  you  know  anything  further 
concerning  it  ?  By  a  calumny,  at  Lyons,  you  made  me 
offer  her  (Marguerite)  a  very  great  affront,  which  I  very 
much  fear  that  she  will  resent  all  her  life." 

The  King,  continues  Marguerite,  was  much  dis- 
concerted. "  Madame,"  said  he,  "  I  only  speak  of  this 
after  others."  "  Who  are  those  others,  my  son  ?  " 
replied  the  Queen-Mother.  "  They  are  people  who  wish 
to  set  you  at  variance  with  all  your  relatives." 

"  The  King,  having  taken  his  departure,"  continues 
the  princess,  "  she  repeated  everything  to  me,  and  said : 

1  Elder  brother  of  Henri  II.,  who  died  August  10,  1533. 
1  Marguerite  de  Valois,  Duchess  of  Savoy,  sister  of  Frai^ois  I 

166 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

*  You  were  born  in  an  evil  day ' ;  and  calling  Madame 
de  Dampierre,  she  fell  to  conversing  with  her  about  the 
pleasant  liberty  of  action  which  they  enjoyed  in  their 
time,  without  being,  like  us,  subjected  to  slander." 

True  to  the  role  which  she  assumes  throughout  her 
MJmoires,  that  of  a  cruelly  maligned  woman,  Marguerite 
has  endeavoured  to  remove  from  the  minds  of  her 
readers  any  suspicion  that  Du  Guast's  accusation  might 
have  had  a  basis  of  truth  ;  and  it  is  difficult  not  to  admire 
the  adroitness  with  which  she  places  her  own  apology 
in  her  mother's  mouth.  However,  she  speaks  of  Bussy 
in  terms  too  passionate,  and  takes  his  part  with  too  much 
warmth  for  her  protestations  of  innocence  to  be  very 
readily  accepted.  "  She  is  no  longer  mistress  of  her 
pen,  and  one  seems  to  feel  by  the  extravagance  of  her 
praises  that  her  heart  overflows."  *  "  There  was  not  one 
of  his  sex  and  quality  in  this  century,"  she  writes,  "  who 
was  his  equal  in  valour,  renown,  grace,  and  understanding ; 
so  much  so  that  there  were  some  who  maintained  that, 
if  one  were  to  believe,  like  certain  philosophers,  in  the 
transmigration  of  souls,  no  doubt  could  exist  that  the 
soul  of  your  gallant  brother  Hardelay  animated  him."2 
While,  elsewhere,  she  declares  that  he  was  "  born  to  be 
the  terror  of  his  enemies,  the  glory  of  his  master,  and  the 
hope  of  his  friends." 

Moreover,  the  testimony  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre's 
contemporaries  is  against  her.  Dampmartin,  in  his 
Fortune  de  la  Cour,  relates  that,  venturing  to  speak  one 
day  to  Bussy  about  his  friendship  with  the  princess,  his 

1  Sainte-Beuve,  Causeries  du  Lundi,  vol.  vi.  La  Reine  Marguerite,  ses 
memoires  et  ses  lettres. 

J  Jean  de  Bourdeille,  brother  of  Brant&me,  to  whom  Marguerite'i 
Memoires  are  addressed.  Brant&me  speaks  of  him  in  his  £l«ge  ties 

hemmes  illustres  fran^ois. 

167 


words  "  affected  him  and  caused  him  to  blush  a  little, 
because  he  knew  that  he  was  something  to  her."  And 
Brantome,  the  common  friend  of  Bussy  and  Marguerite, 
and  the  latter's  most  devoted  admirer,  says  that  she  aban- 
doned one  of  her  lovers  "  to  accord  her  favours  to  a  young 
nobleman,  brave  and  valliant,  who  bore  on  the  point  of 
his  sword  the  honour  of  his  lady,  without  any  one  daring 
to  touch  it." 

This  allusion,  very  justly  observes  M.  Charles  Merki, 
is  sufficiently  clear,  and,  after  it,  when  one  remembers 
the  predilections  of  the  writer,  further  evidence  becomes 
superfluous.1  And  we,  therefore,  fear  that  the  efforts 
of  Marguerite's  apologist,  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  to  prove 
that  the  princess  was  Bussy's  mistress  only  in  the  poetic 
sense  of  the  term  are  so  much  labour  lost.2 

Foiled  in  his  design  to  injure  Marguerite,  and  fearing 
that  he  might  be  called  upon  to  answer  to  her  lover  for 
his  temerity,  Du  Guast,  with  the  full  approval  of  the 
King,  now  resolved  to  get  rid  of  Bussy,  according  to  the 
fashion  of  those  days,  not,  of  course,  in  fair  fight,  seeing 
that  he  would  have  stood  but  a  poor  chance  had  he 
ventured  to  measure  swords  with  that  doughty  champion, 
but  by  means  of  an  ambuscade.  Circumstances  favoured 
him,  since  Bussy — a  host  in  himself — was  for  the  time 
being  bars  de  combat,  suffering  from  a  wound  in  his 
sword-arm,  which  he  had  received  in  a  duel  with  Saint- 
Phal,  one  of  Henri  III.'s  mignons.  Du  Guast,  who  was 
colonel  of  the  King's  guards,  posted,  one  night,  a  number 
of  his  men  in  a  street  through  which  his  enemy  must  pass, 
on  his  way  from  the  Louvre  to  his  lodging  in  the  Rue  de 
Crenelle ;  who,  when  Bussy  appeared,  accompanied 

1  La  Reine  Mar  got  et  la  fin  des  Valois,  p.  124. 
*  Marguerite  de  Palois,  i.  300-302. 
168 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

by  only  some  fifteen  or  twenty  followers,  discharged  a 
volley  of  arquebus  and  pistol-shots,  "  sufficient  to 
scatter  a  whole  regiment,"  and  then  hurled  themselves 
upon  him.  A  desperate  hand-to-hand  fight  ensued, 
in  which  one  unfortunate  gentleman,  who,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  he,  like  Bussy,  carried  his  arm  in  a  sling,  was 
mistaken  for  him  in  the  darkness,  fell  covered  with 
wounds.  Bussy  himself  escaped  unhurt,  by  stepping 
through  a  door,  which,  by  good  fortune,  had  been  left 
ajar,  and  closing  it  in  the  face  of  his  adversaries. 

However,  the  news  of  the  affray  was  carried  to  the 
Louvre,  by  an  Italian  gentleman  in  Alencon's  service, 
who  rushed,  all  covered  with  blood,  into  the  palace, 
crying  out  that  Bussy  was  being  assassinated.  Alencon, 
who  had  retired  for  the  night,  immediately  sprang  out 
of  bed,  threw  on  his  clothes,  and,  sword  in  hand,  was  about 
to  run  to  his  favourite's  assistance,  when  he  was  stopped 
by  Marguerite  and  the  Queen-Mother,  who  besought 
him  not  to  expose  himself  to  danger,  pointing  out  that 
the  affair  had  very  probably  been  concerted  by  his 
enemies,  for  the  express  purpose  of  drawing  him  from 
the  Louvre  and  assassinating  him  under  cover  of  the 
darkness.  Their  prayers  and  remonstrances  ultimately 
prevailed,  and  Monsieur  returned  to  his  apartments, 
though,  fearing  lest  he  might  change  his  mind,  Catherine 
sent  orders  to  the  porters  on  no  account  to  open  the 
palace  gates.  An  hour  or  two  later,  Marguerite  and  her 
brother  learned,  to  their  intense  relief,  that  Bussy  was 
safe,  and,  the  following  morning,  their  hero  presented 
himself  at  the  Louvre,  "  with  as  gallant  and  gay  a  de- 
meanour," writes  the  princess,  "as  if  the  attack  upon 
him  had  been  merely  a  passage  of  arms  for  his  amusement." 

Alencon,  however,  was  none  the  less  determined  to 

169 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

take  vengeance  for  the  affront  which,  he  considered, 
had  been  offered  him,  "  in  seeking  to  deprive  him  of 
as  valliant  and  worthy  a  servant  as  ever  prince  of  his 
quality  had  known."  The  King  was  equally  determined 
to  protect  the  offenders,  and,  urged  on  by  Du  Guast, 
declared  that  Bussy  had  brought  all  the  trouble  upon 
himself  by  his  overbearing  and  quarrelsome  behaviour, 
and  swore  that  he  would  no  longer  tolerate  such  a 
ruffianly  brawler  at  his  Court.  In  the  end,  Catherine, 
fearing  an  open  rupture  between  her  sons,  persuaded 
Alen^on  to  advise  his  favourite  to  withdraw  for  a  while 
from  Paris  and  the  Court.  The  duke  reluctantly  con- 
sented and,  one  fine  morning,  Bussy  was  escorted  by  a 
troupe  of  his  friends  and  admirers  to  the  Porte  Saint- 
Antoine,  and  retired  to  his  government  of  Anjou,  where 
he  remained  until  after  the  "  Peace  of  Monsieur" 

Marguerite  was  naturally  much  incensed  by  Bussy's 
banishment,  and  her  chagrin  was  accentuated  by  fresh 
difficulties  with  her  husband,  who  took  offence  at  her 
indiscreet  championship  of  the  exiled  gallant.  However, 
they  were  momentarily  reconciled,  when  the  Queen  came 
to  his  assistance  one  night,  "  when  he  was  seized  with  a 
very  serious  indisposition,  the  result,  I  believe,  of  his 
amorous  excesses  (Qui  lui  venoit,  comme  je  crois,  d'excez 
qu'il  avoit  faits  avec  les  femmei)"*  This  pleased  him 
so  much,  she  tells  us,  that  he  praised  her  to  every  one, 
declaring  that,  but  for  her  timely  succour,  he  would 
certainly  have  died. 

Taking  advantage  of  this  change  in  his  disposition 
towards  her,  Marguerite  succeeded  in  bringing  about  a 
better  understanding  between  Henri  and  Alen^on,  who 
were  beginning  to  suspect  that  the  fascinating  Madame 

1  Memoiret  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Va/ois  (edit.  Guessard). 

170 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

de  Sauve  had  been  deceiving  them  both.  The  rap- 
prochement between  the  two  princes  alarmed  Du  Guast, 
who,  "  recognising  that  she  (Marguerite)  was  the  cause  of 
it,  and  that  she  acted  as  a  kind  of  unguent,  such  as  exists 
in  all  natural  objects,  and  which  joins  and  cements  their 
severed  parts,"  advised  Henri  III.  to  induce  the  King 
of  Navarre  to  dismiss  Mile,  de  Thorigny,1  his  consort's 
favourite  maid-of-honour,  on  the  ground  that  she  had 
assisted  her  mistress  in  her  intrigue  with  Bussy.  As 
Du  Guast  had,  of  course,  foreseen,  a  violent  quarrel  be- 
tween the  young  couple  followed ;  and  Marguerite's  ex- 
asperation against  her  husband  reached  such  a  pitch  that 
she  refused  to  live  with  him  any  longer  as  his  wife,  or 
even  to  speak  to  him. 

1  Gillone  Govion  de  Matignon,  daughter  of  Jacques  Je  Matignon, 
Comte  de  Thorigny,  IMarechal  de  France.  She  married,  en  premieres  noces, 
Pierre  d'Havcourt,  seigneur  de  Beuvron,  and,  after  his  death,  the  Comte 
de  Nermont, 


171 


CHAPTER   XII 

Irksome  position  of  Henri  of  Navarre  and  Alen^on  at  Court 
— Flight  of  {Monsieur — Fury  of  the  King  on  learning  of  his 
brother's  escape — The  Queen-Mother  leaves  Paris  to  negotiate 
with  Alen£on — Serious  position  of  affairs — Henri  III.  vents 
his  anger  upon  Marguerite  and  causes  her  to  be  placed  under 
arrest  in  her  own  apartments — Attempt  of  Du  Guast  against 
the  life  of  Mile,  de  Thorigny — Assassination  of  Du  Guast  by 
the  Baron  de  Viteaux — Question  of  Marguerite's  responsi- 
bility for  this  crime  considered — Escape  of  the  King  of 
Navarre — Marguerite  again  subjected  to  a  rigorous  confine- 
ment— Henri  III.  compelled  to  treat  with  the  rebels — 
Alen^on  refuses  to  negotiate  until  his  sister  is  set  at  liberty — 
The  Queen  of  Navarre,  at  the  request  of  the  King  and  Cath- 
erine, accompanies  the  latter  to  confer  with  the  leaders  of  the 
insurrection — The  Peace  of  Beaulieu  ("Peace  of  Monsieur") 
— Marguerite  returns  to  Paris. 

IN  the  meanwhile,  the  position  of  Henri  of  Navarre 
and  Alen^on  at  Court  had  become  even  more  irksome 
than  it  had  been  during  the  preceding  reign.  Although 
nominally  at  liberty,  they  were  still  subjected  to  the 
closest  and  most  vexatious  surveillance.  Navarre  saw 
his  hereditary  States  a  prey  to  disorder,  his  authority 
declining,  and  his  orders  ignored  by  his  subjects,  who 
considered  themselves  absolved  from  obedience  to  a 
ruler  who  was  little  better  than  a  prisoner ;  from  his 
kingdom  he  received  scarcely  anything.  His  other  fiefs 
of  the  Armagnac,  Perigord,  Rouergue,  Foix,  and  the 
Limousin  were  ravaged  by  war  and  brought  him  but  a 

172 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

meagre  revenue.  As  for  his  salary  as  Governor  of 
Guienne,  his  pensions  and  those  of  his  wife,  these  had 
been  for  some  time  past  in  arrears ;  and  Du  Guast  took 
care  that  his  requests  for  payment  should  be  met  by 
specious  excuses  or  mortifying  refusals. 

Alenfon  was  in  no  better  case.  The  revenues  of  his 
appanage  were  insufficient  to  enable  him  to  maintain  the 
dignity  of  his  position,  and  he  was  deeply  in  debt.  His 
brother  treated  him  with  coldness  and  contempt ;  while 
his  friends  found  themselves  threatened  with  disgrace, 
and  were  continually  having  quarrels  thrust  upon  them 
by  the  insolent  favourites  of  the  King. 

Under  stress  of  their  common  grievances,  the  two 
princes  agreed  to  forget  their  differences,  and  resumed 
their  projects  of  escape.  This  time  success  rewarded 
tkeir  efforts.  On  September  15,  1575,  Alengon,  muffled 
in  his  cloak,1  left  the  Louvre,  about  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  followed  by  a  single  gentleman,  and  made  his 
way  to  the  Porte  Saint-Honore.  Here  Simier,  his  Master 
of  the  Wardrobe,  was  awaiting  him  with  a  coach.  Mon- 
sieur entered  it,  and  was  driven  to  Meudon,  where 
Guitry,  the  Huguenot  leader  whose  attempt  to  effect 
his  liberation  eighteen  months  before  had  miscarried, 
joined  him  with  a  body  of  cavalry.  The  fugitive  prince 
left  his  coach,  mounted  a  horse,  and  rode  to  Dreux, 
one  of  the  towns  of  his  appanage,  which  had  been  selected 
as  the  rendezvous  of  his  partisans.2 

Great  was  the  consternation  at  the  Louvre  when  it 

1  D'Aubigne  relates  that,  before  setting  out,  he  had  put  on  the  doublet 
which  La  Mole  had  worn  on  the  day  of  his  execution,  swearing  to  wear 
it  in  the  day  of  battle,  and  not  to  lay  it  aside  until  he  had  avenged  his 
ill-fated  favourite. 

2  De  Thou  gives  a  different  account  of  Alen£on's  escape,  but  that  of 
Marguerite,  which  we  have  followed,  is  to  be  preferred.     The  princess 

173 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

became  known  that  Monsieur  had  fled  from  Paris.  "  His 
absence,"  writes  Marguerite,  "  was  not  remarked  until 
nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  when  the  King  and  the 
Queen  my  mother  inquired  of  me,  why  he  had  not  supped 
with  them,  and  whether  he  were  ill.  I  told  them  that 
I  had  not  seen  him  since  dinner-time.  They  sent  to  his 
chamber  to  ascertain  what  he  was  doing,  but  were  in- 
formed that  he  was  not  there.  They  gave  orders  that 
search  should  be  made  for  him  in  all  the  ladies'  apart- 
ments which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  frequenting.  He 
was  sought  for  all  over  the  palace  and  all  over  the  town, 
but  was  not  to  be  found.  The  alarm  increased  ;  the 
King  flew  into  a  passion,  stormed,  threatened,  sent  to 
summon  all  the  princes  and  nobles  of  the  Court,  and 
ordered  them  to  take  horse  and  bring  him  back,  alive 
or  dead,  declaring  that  he  had  gone  to  disturb  his  realm 
and  to  make  war  upon  him,  and  that  he  would  teach 
him  the  folly  he  was  committing  in  attacking  a  King 
as  powerful  as  himself.  .  .  .  Some  accepted  this  com- 
mission,1 and  prepared  to  mount  their  horses.  They 
were  unable,  however,  to  be  in  readiness  to  start  before 
daybreak,  for  which  reason  they  failed  to  overtake  my 
brother,  and  were  obliged  to  return,  not  being  equipped 
for  war." 

From  Dreux,  Alencon  issued  a  proclamation,  "  based," 
remarks  L'Estoile,  "  as  they  all  are,  on  the  preservation 
and  re-establishment  of  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the 
realm,"  which  greatly  perturbed  the  King  and  the 
Court.  The  Queen-Mother  offered  to  endeavour  to 
bring  back  the  fugitive,  and,  on  September  21,  she  left 

was  in  her  brother's  confidence  and,  therefore,  better  informed.    More- 
over, her  version  of  the  affair  is  confirmed  by  L'Estoile. 
1  But  others,  like  the  Due  de  Montpensier,  curtly  refused. 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Paris,  accompanied  by  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon  and  the 
Bishop  of  Mende.  But  Monsieur,  warned  that  Nevers 
and  Matignon  were  assembling  troops  to  take  the  field 
against  him,  did  not  await  her  arrival,  but  withdrew  into 
Touraine  ;  and  it  was  not  until  October  5  that  Catherine 
contrived  to  overtake  him  at  Chambourg.  The  prince, 
however,  refused  to  negotiate,  until  the  two  marshals, 
Montmorency  and  Cosse,  who  were  still  in  the  Bastille, 
had  been  released  ;  and  Henri  III.  was  compelled  to  set 
them  at  liberty  and  beg  them  to  use  their  influence  in 
favour  of  peace.  Both  the  King  and  Catherine  were 
thoroughly  alarmed  at  the  turn  which  events  were  taking  ; 
for  the  escape  of  Alen^on  had  been  the  signal  for  the 
"  Politiques  "  and  Huguenots  to  commence  a  vigorously 
offensive  warfare.  Thore,  the  youngest  of  the  Mont- 
morency brothers,  had  advanced  into  Champagne,  at 
the  head  of  5000  Germans,  who  were  only  the  advance- 
guard  of  a  large  force  of  the  dreaded  Reiters,  which 
Conde  had  been  for  some  time  past  employed  in  raising  ; 
d'Amville,  in  Languedoc,  was  preparing  to  support 
Alengon  with  14,000  men  ;  while  John  Casimir,  brother 
of  the  Elector  Palatine,  was  threatening  the  Three 
Bishoprics.  The  defeat  of  Thore,  by  Guise,  at  Dormans, 
on  October  u,  in  which  engagement  the  duke  received 
the  wound  in  the  face  which  earned  him,  like  his  cele- 
brated father,  the  name  of  "  le  Balafre"  checked  the 
advance  of  the  Germans.  But  the  Huguenots  captured 
Issoire,  and  the  King  was  glad  to  purchase  a  truce  of  six 
months,  at  Champigny,  by  surrendering  to  his  brother 
the  towns  of  Angouldme,  Niort,  Saumur,  Bourges,  and  La 
Charite,  as  pledges  of  his, good  faith  (November  21,  1575) 

At  the  Court,  meanwhile,  poor  Marguerite,  overcome 

175 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

by  anxiety  on  her  brother's  account  and  by  fear  lest  the 
King  should  vent  his  resentment  upon  her,  had  fallen 
into  a  violent  fever,  which  confined  her  to  her  bed  for 
some  days.  Her  apprehensions,  as  regarded  herself, 
were  fully  justified,  for  when  she  reappeared,  Henri  III., 
who,  notwithstanding  her  protestations  of  innocence, 
entertained  no  doubt  that  she  had  been  an  accomplice 
of  Alencon's  flight,  overwhelmed  her  with  threats  and 
reproaches.  "  He  was  so  inflamed  against  me,"  she 
writes,  "  that,  had  he  not  been  restrained  by  the  Queen 
my  mother,  I  believe  that  his  rage  would  have  led  him 
to  perpetrate  some  cruelty  against  me,  to  the  endangering 
of  my  life."  The  cautious  Catherine  pointed  out  to  her 
infuriated  son  that  ere  long  they  might  be  glad  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  princess's  good  offices,  "  for  that, 
as  prudence  enjoined  that  we  ought  to  live  with  our 
friends  as  though  they  might  one  day  become  our 
enemies,  so  also  did  she  ordain  that  when  the  ties  of 
affection  were  severed,  we  should  behave  to  our  enemies 
as  though  they  might  one  day  become  our  friends."  \. 
This  judicious  counsel  prevented  the  King  from  taking 
any  violent  measures  against  his  sister ;  but  he  ordered 
her  to  be  placed  under  arrest  in  her  own  apartments,1 
and  strictly  prohibited  every  one  from  visiting  or  holding 
any  communication  with  her  ;  guards  being  posted  before 
her  door  to  see  that  his  orders  were  carried  out.  No  one 

1  In  her  Memoires,  Marguerite  places  her  imprisonment  after  the 
escape  of  Henri  of  Navarre,  which  took  place  five  months  subsequent  to 
that  of  Alcncon,  in  February  1576.  But,  since  she  states,  in  another 
passage,  that  it  preceded  the  departure  of  the  Queen-Mother  for  the 
interview  of  Champigny  and  the  death  of  Du  Guast,  of  which  we  shall 
presently  speak,  it  is  obvious,  as  her  biographer  M.  de  Saint-Poncy 
points  out,  that  either  her  memory  is  at  fault,  or  she  has  knowingly 
erred,  through  a  desire  to  pose  as  the  victim  of  conjugal  devotion. 

I76 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

ventured  to  disobey,  with  the  exception  of  the  gallant 
Crillon,1  who  braved  all  prohibitions  and  loss  of  favour, 
and  came  several  times  to  visit  the  captive  princess, 
"  astonishing  so  much  thereby  the  Cerberi  who  guarded 
her  door,  that  they  did  not  venture  either  to  address 
him  or  to  deny  him  entrance." 

Not  content  with  subjecting  his  sister  to  a  rigorous 
confinement,  Henri,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  amiable 
Du  Guast,  determined  to  take  vengeance  upon  her  in 
other  fashion. 

We  have  spoken,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  of  a  Mile, 
de  Thorigny,  maid-of-honour  to  Marguerite,  whom  the 
King  had  persuaded  Henri  of  Navarre  to  dismiss  from  his 
wife's  service,  on  the  ground  that  she  had  been  an  in- 
termediary between  the  young  Queen  and  Bussy.  This 
Mile,  de  Thorigny,  after  leaving  the  Court,  had  retired 
to  the  country-house  of  one  of  her  relatives,  a  certain 
Sieur  de  Chastelas.  But,  one  fine  morning,  soon  after 
the  flight  of  Alen^on,  a  party  of  soldiers  belonging  to 
Du  Guast's  regiment  rode  up  to  the  chateau,  and 
informed  the  trembling  damsel  that  they  had  orders 
from  his  Majesty  to  convey  her  back  to  Paris.  They  then 
seized  and  bound  her,  and  locked  her  up  in  her  room, 
the  while  they  devoted  themselves  to  the  congenial  task 
of  pillaging  the  house  and  making  merry  with  the  contents 
of  the  Sieur  de  Chastelas's  cellar. 

If  we  are  to  believe  Marguerite,  the  soldiers  had  secret 
instructions  to  drown  the  unfortunate  young  lady  in  an 
adjoining  stream ;  but,  however  that  may  be,  it  is 
tolerably  certain  that  some  very  unpleasant  fate  awaited 

1  Louis  de  Berton  des  Balbes  de  Crillon,  Knight  of  Malta,  afterwards 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  captains  of  Henri  IV.  He  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  Bussy  d'Amboise,  whose  life  he  had  saved  in  Poland. 

177  M 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

her.  Happily  for  Mile,  de  Thorigny,  just  as  her  captors 
were  on  the  point  of  carrying  her  off,  a  body  of  horse, 
on  their  way  to  join  Alen^on's  army,  appeared  upon  the 
scene,  under  the  command  of  Avantigny,  one  of  Mon- 
sieur's chamberlains,  promptly  charged  and  scattered 
Du  Guast's  troopers,  and  rescued  the  lady.1 

The  attempt  upon  Mile,  de  Thorigny  was  the  last  of 
Du  Guast's  exploits,  as,  shortly  afterwards,  his  career 
came  to  an  abrupt  and  tragic  termination. 

The  mignon  had  many  enemies,  but  the  most  implacable 
of  all  was  a  certain  Guillaume  du  Prat,  Baron  de  Viteaux, 
younger  brother  of  Nantouillet,  Provost  of  Paris,  who  had 
declined  the  hand  of  Mile,  de  Chateauneuf,  Henri  III.'s 
discarded  mistress.  This  Viteaux,  who  was  a  notorious 
brawler,  had  killed,  in  a  duel,  a  gentleman  named  Allegre, 
one  of  the  King's  favourites.  The  King  would  probably 
have  overlooked  the  offence  ;  but  Du  Guast,  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  ill-fated  Allegre,  gave  him  no  peace  until 
he  had  disgraced  and  exiled  Viteaux,  who  left  Paris 
vowing  vengeance  against  the  author  of  his  punishment. 
Nor  were  his  threats  idle  ones.  Towards  the  end  of 
October  1575,  he  returned  secretly  to  Paris,  accom- 
panied by  some  trusty  retainers,  concealed  himself  in 
the  Couvent  des  Augustins,  and  sent  his  servants  to  gather 
information  concerning  the  movements  of  his  enemy. 

Du  Guast,  as  a  rule,  was  far  from  an  easy  person  to 
approach  with  any  hostile  intent,  since,  aware  of  the  hatred 
of  which  he  was  the  object,  it  was  his  practice  to  go  about 
guarded  by  some  fifteen  or  twenty  of  the  men  of  his 
regiment,  who  never  left  him  during  the  day,  and  at 
night  posted  themselves  around  his  lodging.  However, 
he  happened,  just  at  that  time,  to  be  carrying  on  an 

1  Mimoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Va/ois  (edit.  Gucssard). 
178 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

intrigue  with  a  Madame  d'Estrees,  who  resided  in  the 
Faubourg  Saint-Germain,  and,  in  order  to  facilitate 
their  intercourse,  had  rented  a  small  house  adjoining 
that  of  his  mistress  and  communicating  with  it.  More- 
over, since  the  lady  set  rather  more  store  by  her  reputa- 
tion than  was  customary  in  those  days,  and  the  sight  of 
Du  Guast's  tall  guardsmen  on  duty  outside  the  house 
could  not  fail  to  arouse  gossip  in  the  neighbourhood, 
he  confined  his  following  on  the  nights  when  he  visited 
the  Faubourg  Saint-Germain  to  two  or  three  confidential 
servants. 

Viteaux,  duly  informed  of  all  this,  laid  his  plans  with 
secrecy  and  promptitude.  On  All  Saints'  Eve  (Novem- 
ber i,  1575),  Du  Guast,  according  to  his  habit,  was  read- 
ing in  bed — like  so  many  men  of  pleasure  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  favourite  made  some  pretence  of  culture — 
when  the  door  was  flung  open,  and  Viteaux,  followed  by 
two  bravos,  brothers  of  the  name  of  Boucicaux,  who, 
on  account  of  their  courage  and  ferocity,  he  called  "  his 
lions,"  rushed  into  the  room.  By  some  means,  they  had 
succeeded  in  gaining  admission  to  the  house,  and  had 
poniarded  the  servants  before  they  had  had  time  to  give 
the  alarm. 

Snatching  up  a  sword,  which  stood  beside  his  pillow, 
Du  Guast  attempted  to  defend  himself  ;  but  the  combat 
was  an  unequal  one,  and  in  a  few  moments  he  was  des- 
patched. Throwing  a  coverlet  over  the  corpse,  Viteaux 
passed  into  the  adjoining  house,  where  he  found  Madame 
d'Estrees,  who  had  not  yet  retired  to  rest,  and,  with 
revolting  cruelty,  wiped  his  sword,  wet  with  the  blood  of 
her  lover,  upon  the  distracted  woman's  dress.  Then, 
since  it  was  midnight,  and  the  gates  were  closed,  he  and 
his  accomplices  made  for  the  city  walls,  down  which  they 

179 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

lowered  themselves,  by  means  of  a  rope,  mounted  horses 
which  were  awaiting  them,  and  escaped  to  the  army  of 
Alenc/Dn. 

We  have  dwelt  upon  this  tragic  affair  at  greater  length 
than  it  perhaps  deserves,  since  it  has  been  made  the 
occasion  of  a  very  serious  charge  against  Marguerite  de 
Valois.  Not  only  the  scurrilous  pamphleteers  of  the 
time,  but  grave  historians,  like  de  Thou  and  Mezeray, 
and,  after  them,  a  crowd  of  other  writers,  do  iiot  hesitate 
to  assert  or  to  hint  that  Viteaux  did  not  act  on  his  own 
initiative,  but  was  the  instrument  of  a  more  important 
quarrel.  With  a  wealth  of  detail,  which  does  infinite 
credit  to  their  imaginative  faculties,  picturesque  historians 
relate  how  the  young  Queen  of  Navarre,  having  endured 
the  persecutions  of  Du  Guast  until  her  patience  was 
exhausted,  resolved  upon  a  sure  method  of  putting  an 
end  to  them  for  ever  ;  how,  having  been  informed  that 
the  injured  Viteaux  was  in  hiding  in  Paris,  she  visited 
him  in  his  cloistral  retreat,  under  cover  of  night,  and, 
by  a  pathetic  relation  of  the  wrongs  she  had  suffered  at 
the  hands  of  their  common  enemy,  roused  him  to  the 
last  pitch  of  fury.  And  that  inimitable  embroiderer  of 
historical  fact,  Michelet,  adds  that,  the  better  to  assure 
her  vengeance,  she  appealed  to  other  passions,  and  sur- 
rendered herself  to  the  embraces  of  the  bravo. 

Now,  what  truth,  if  any,  is  there  in  all  this  ?  None 
whatever  !  De  Thou,  the  most  reliable  witness,  does 
not  actually  name  Marguerite  ;  he  merely  says  that  a 
woman  of  the  highest  rank  went  to  seek  Viteaux  in  his 
hiding-place.  It  is  by  no  means  certain,  as  so  many 
later  writers  assume,  that  he  intended  to  indicate  the 
young  Queen  ;  for  Du  Guast's  malignant  tongue  had 
injured  more  than  one  lady  of  the  highest  rank.  In 

1 80 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

L'Estoile's  account  of  the  affair,  there  is  not  a  word 
about  Marguerite  ;  while  Brantome  refuses  to  admit 
that  she  had  any  connection  with  the  crime.  "  Although 
he  [Du  Guast]  had  greatly  injured  her,"  he  writes, 
"  she  did  not  render  him  the  like,  nor  avenge  herself. 
It  is  true  that,  when  he  was  killed,  and  they  came  to 
announce  it  to  her,  she  merely  said  :  *  I  am  very  vexed 
that  I  am  not  quite  cured,  in  order  to  have  the  joy  of 
celebrating  his  death.'  But,  moreover,  she  was  so  good, 
that  when  any  one  humbled  himself  before  her,  in  order 
to  seek  her  pardon  and  favour,  she  forgave  and  pardoned 
everything,  after  the  fashion  of  the  generosity  of  the 
lion,  who  never  harms  one  who  humbles  himself." 

However,  as  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  points  out,  Marguerite 
has  really  no  need  of  the  testimony  of  any  chronicler 
in  her  favour,  since  she  would  have  been  able  to  prove, 
had  she  been  required,  the  most  incontestable  of  alibis. 
When  the  murder  was  planned  and  executed,  she  was 
in  a  position  which  made  it  impossible  for  her  to  visit 
the  Augustine  convent  or  any  other  place,  since  she  was 
at  that  time  a  close  prisoner  in  her  apartments  in  the 
Louvre,  with  guards  stationed  at  her  door  to  prevent 
her  leaving  them  or  even  receiving  visitors.  It  was, 
indeed,  just  at  the  moment  of  Du  Guast's  death  that 
her  captivity  was  the  most  rigorous,  nor  was  it  relaxed 
until  after  the  truce  signed  at  Champigny  on  November 
21,  1575,  three  weeks  later.  Further,  from  the  words 
which  Brantome  attributes  to  her,  it  is  clear  that  she 
must  have  been  ill  and  confined  to  her  room,  and  probably 
to  her  bed,  by  a  rather  slow  convalescence.  "  I  am 
very  vexed  that  I  am  not  quite  cured,"  she  says,  "  in 
order  to  have  the  joy  of  celebrating  his  death  "  ;  a  very 
reprehensible  speech  no  doubt,  but  also  very  natural, 

181 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

in  the  mouth  of  a  young  woman,  who  suddenly  learns 
that  she  has  no  longer  to  fear  the  most  cruel  of  her 
enemies.1 

Marguerite  is  then  innocent  of  the  crime  imputed  to 
her,  though  it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  her  brother 
and  ally  Alen^on,  who  had  a  long  score  of  his  own  against 
M.  du  Guast,  had  been  the  instigator  of  the  deed. 
L'Estoile  tells  us  that  it  was  the  general  belief  in  Paris 
that  the  murder  had  been  committed  "  with  his  full 
consent  and  by  his  orders,  inasmuch  as  this  proud  and 
audacious  mignon  had  braved  Monsieur,  even  to  the 
length  of  one  day  passing  him  in  the  Rue  Saint-Antoine 
without  saluting  him,  or  even  pretending  to  know  him, 
and  had  several  times  declared  that  he  recognised  only 
the  King,  and  that,  when  the  latter  should  order  him  to 
kill  his  own  brother,  he  would  do  it."  And  Mongez 
writes  :  "  That  which  completes  this  conviction,  is  the 
refusal  addressed  to  Monsieur  by  M.  de  Ruffec,  Governor 
of  Angoul6me.  This  town  had  been  given  to  the  duke 
for  a  surety,  and  when  he  pressed  Ruffec  to  surrender 
it,  the  latter  excused  himself,  on  the  plea  that,  since  he 
had  always  been  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  King,  and, 
in  consequence,  the  enemy  of  Monsieur,  he  feared  the 
fate  of  Du  Guast,  whom  his  Majesty's  favour  had  not 
been  able  to  protect  against  his  (Alen^on's)  blows."2 

1  Comte  L6o  de  Saint-Poncy,  Marguerite  de  Valois,  i.  345.     In    her 
Memoires,  Marguerite  makes  no  attempt  to  conceal  her  detestation  of 
"  this  instrument  of  hatred  and  dissension,"  who,  she  says,  was  "  killed 
by  a  judgment  of  God,  as  he  was  following  a  cure,   his   body  being 
ruined  by  all  kinds  of  abominations  and  given  over  to  the  corruption 
which  had  long   possessed  it,  when  his  soul  became  the  prey  of  the 
demons  to  whom  he  had  done  homage  by  magic  and  all  manner  oi 
wickedness." 

2  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Valois. 

182 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

For  the  rest,  Du  Guast  was  well  served  ;  ne  was  one 
of  the  worst  of  the  mignons  of  Henri  III.,  and  his  attacks 
upon  women — for  not  only  did  he  wage  war  upon 
Marguerite,  but  even  ventured  to  traduce  and  persecute 
the  innocent  and  inoffensive  Queen  Louise — shocked 
and  disgusted  all  who  retained  a  vestige  of  chivalrous 
feeling.  The  manner  of  his  death,  too,  was  singularly 
appropriate,  since  he  had  been  one  of  the  most  pitiless 
of  the  assassins  of  the  St.  Bartholomew.  "As  he  had 
surprised  some  in  their  beds,"  writes  L'Estoile — "  of 
which  he  boasted — so  he  himself  was  surprised  and 
slain." 

After  the  death  of  Du  Guast  and  the  truce  of  Cham- 
pigny,  the  Queen  of  Navarre  found  her  position  more 
tolerable.  Alenson  had  strongly  protested  against  the 
treatment  to  which  his  sister  was  being  subjected,  and 
Catherine  had  not  failed  to  represent  to  the  King  the 
necessity  of  conciliating  the  duke  by  every  means  in 
their  power.  Though  Marguerite,  therefore,  still  re- 
mained under  arrest,  she  was  allowed  a  certain  amount 
of  liberty.  Nevertheless,  her  life  was  far  from  a  pleasant 
one,  and  soon  the  affairs  of  her  husband  came  to  aggravate 
her  situation. 

Henri  of  Navarre,  who  both  disliked  and  despised 
Alen^on,  though  necessity  had  driven  them  into  an 
alliance,  chafed  to  see  him  occupying  a  position  which 
he  felt  should  be  his,  and  waited  impatiently  for  a  chance 
of  escaping  from  the  thraldom  which  he  had  now  endured 
for  more  than  three  years.  Nevertheless,  in  order  to 
enable  his  friends  to  complete  their  preparations,  he  was 
compelled  to  postpone  his  attempt  until  the  end  of 
February  1576.  In  the  meanwhile,  he  continued  his 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

apparently  careless  and  trivial  life,  and,  by  cleverly 
feigning  disapproval  of  Alenc.on's  conduct,  succeeded  in 
quieting  Henri  III.'s  suspicions  and  securing  greater 
liberty.  However,  on  February  4,  as  he  was  returning 
from  a  hunting  expedition  in  the  Forest  of  Senlis,  he 
met  his  faithful  equerry,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  and  two  or 
three  other  attendants  galloping  at  full  speed  from  Paris. 

"  Sire,"  cried  d'Aubigne,  "  we  are  betrayed  ;  the  King 
knows  all.  The  road  to  Paris  leads  to  dishonour  and 
death ;  those  to  life  and  glory  are  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion." 

"  There  is  no  need  of  so  many  ^words,"  replied 
Henri,  "  the  die  is  cast." 

The  young  King  was,  as  was  customary,  escorted  by 
two  gentlemen,  who  were  responsible  to  Henri  III.  for 
his  safety.  But  them  he  dismissed,  on  some  pretext 
which  they  did  not  care  to  question,  in  face  of  the  trucu- 
lent attitude  of  d'Aubigne  and  his  companions,  and 
then,  turning  his  horse's  head,  made  for  Poissy,  where 
he  crossed  the  Seine  and  reached  the  town  of  Alen^on 
in  safety.  Here  he  stood  sponsor  at  the  christening, 
according  to  Calvinistic  ritual,  of  the  child  of  one  of  his 
adherents.  As  he  entered  the  meeting-house,  the  con- 
gregation were  singing  the  2ist  Psalm.  "  The  King  shall 
rejoice  in  Thy  strength,  O  Lord  ;  exceeding  glad  shall  he 
be  of  Thy  salvation.  Thou  hast  given  him  his  heart's 
desire."  Hearing  that  the  psalm  had  not  been  specially 
chosen,  he  said  that  he  welcomed  it  as  a  good  omen.1 

It  is  related  that  until  Henri  crossed  the  Seine,2  he 

1  Mr.  P.  F.  Willert,  "  Henry  of  Navarre  and  the  Huguenots  in  France," 
p.  108. 

2  L'Estoilc  and  the  many  writers  who  follow  him  name  the  Loire. 
But  this  is  an  obvious  error,  since,  in  journeying  from  Paris  to  Alen9on, 
Henri  had  not  to  cross  the  Loire. 

184 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

maintained  an  absolute  silence  ;  but  the  moment  he 
had  left  the  river  behind  him,  he  gave  a  deep  sigh  of 
relief,  and,  raising  his  eyes  to  Heaven,  exclaimed  : 
"  Praise  be  to  God,  who  has  delivered  me  !  They  killed 
my  mother  in  Paris,  the  Admiral,  and  my  best  servants, 
and  desired  nothing  better  than  to  treat  me  in  the  same 
way,  had  not  God  preserved  me.  I  will  never  return 
there,  unless  I  am  dragged  by  force."  Then,  reverting 
to  his  habitual  gaiety  of  manner,  he  added  :  "  I  have 
left  in  Paris  only  two  things  which  I  regret :  the  Mass 
and  my  wife.  The  first  I  will  make  shift  to  do  without ; 
but  the  latter  I  cannot,  and  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  her 
again." 

From  Alen^on,  Henri  proceeded  to  Saumur  on  the 
Loire,  where  the  Huguenot  gentry  of  the  neighbourhood 
hastened  to  join  him. 

The  flight  of  her  husband  brought  upon  the  head  of 
the  Queen  of  Navarre  a  renewal  of  Henri  III.'s  resent- 
ment, and  she  found  herself  once  more  subjected  to  a 
rigorous  confinement ;  indeed,  if  we  are  to  believe 
Mongez,  his  Majesty  was  so  incensed  against  his  sister 
that,  but  for  Catherine's  intervention,  he  would  have 
chastised  her  with  his  own  royal  hands.1  But  posterity 
ought  to  regard  Marguerite's  captivity  as  a  singular 
piece  of  good  fortune,  since  it  was  during  those  long, 
lonely  hours  that  she  ^acquired,  or  rather  regained,  those 
habits  of  serious  study,  which  had  been  impossible  amid 
the  feverish  gaiety  of  the  Court,  and  the  result  of  which 
may  be  traced  in  almost  every  page  of  her  Memoires. 

Meanwhile,  the  King  and  Catherine  found  themselves 
confronted  by  a  coalition  which  grew  every  day  more 

*  Hiitoire  de  Marguerite  dt  Valoit. 
185 


QUEEN   M ARGOT 

threatening.  Conde  and  John  Casimir,  at  the  head  of 
a  formidable  army  of  Reiters,  invaded  Burgundy,  took 
Dijon,  crossed  the  Loire,  near  La  Charite,  and  effected 
a  junction  with  the  forces  of  Alen^on  on  the  Bourbonnais. 
In  Gascony,  several  important  places  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  Huguenots  ;  and  while  "  the  bravest  and 
most  chivalrous  in  France  "  flocked  to  Alen^on's  standard, 
the  royal  troops  were  half-hearted  and  mutinous,  and 
many  of  the  nobles  flatly  refused  to  march  against 
Monsieur,  "  dreading,"  says  Marguerite,  "  to  get  their 
fingers  pinched  between  two  stones." 

Under  these  circumstances,  Henri  III.  had  no  choice 
but  to  make  overtures  of  peace  to  his  rebellious  brother, 
and  to  Catherine  once  more  fell  the  thankless  task  of 
conducting  the  negotiations.  Before  leaving  Paris,  she 
pointed  out  to  the  King  that  it  would  be  advisable  to 
take  Marguerite  with  her  ;  but  Henri  would  not  consent 
to  part  with  so  valuable  a  hostage,  and  she  was  compelled 
to  leave  her  in  his  hands.  However,  as  she  had  probably 
foreseen,  Alen^on  declined  to  treat  until  his  sister  was 
set  at  liberty.  "  The  Queen  my  mother,"  writes  Mar- 
guerite, "  having  received  this  reply,  returned  and 
informed  the  King  of  what  my  brother  had  said,  adding 
that  it  was  necessary,  if  he  desired  peace,  that  she  should 
go  back  again,  but  that,  if  she  went  without  me,  her 
journey  would  be  again  useless.  She  said,  further,  that, 
if  she  took  me  with  her,  without  having  first  conciliated 
me,  I  should  injure,  rather  than  serve  her  cause,  and  that 
it  was  even  to  be  feared  that  she  might  experience  some 
difficulty  in  persuading  me  to  return,  and  that  I  might 
wish  to  rejoin  the  King  my  husband." 

Henri  III.,  compelled  to  admit  the  force  of  his  mother's 
reasoning,  consented  to  what  she  proposed.  Catherine 

1 86 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

at  once  sent  for  Marguerite,  and  requested  her  assistance 
to  induce  Monsieur  to  come  to  terms  with  the  Court, 
begging  her  "  not  to  allow  the  affront  which  she  had 
received  to  inspire  her  with  sentiments  of  vengeance 
rather  than  with  a  desire  for  peace,  as  the  King  was  pre- 
pared to  make  her  every  reparation  in  his  power."  Then 
Henri  himself  entered  and  made  his  sister  all  kinds  of 
pretty  speeches ;  and  the  interview  terminated  by 
Marguerite  magnanimously  declaring  that  she  was  pre- 
pared to  "  sacrifice  herself,"  for  the  welfare  of  her  family 
and  the  State. 

Accompanied  by  the  Queen  of  Navarre  and  her 
"  escadron  volant"  Catherine  set  out  for  the  Chateau 
of  Chastenay,  near  Sens,  the  rendezvous  she  and  Alencjon 
had  agreed  upon.  "  My  brother,"  resumes  Marguerite, 
"  came  thither,  followed  by  the  principal  nobles  and 
princes  of  his  army,  both  Catholic  and  Huguenot,  and 
the  Duke  Casimir,  and  Colonel  Poux,  who  had  brought 
with  him  six  thousand  Reiters.  The  conditions  of  peace 
were  here  discussed  for  several  days,  a  good  many  disputes 
arising  respecting  the  articles,  chiefly  about  those  which 
concerned  '  the  Religion.' "  1 

The  terms,  which  were  finally  agreed  upon  at  Beau- 
lieu  (May  1576),  were  a  complete  triumph  for  the  rebels, 
and  clearly  prove  the  desperate  straits  to  which  the 
insurrection  had  reduced  Henri  III.  The  Protestants 
secured  concessions  greater  than  any  which  they  had 
hitherto  obtained.  They  were  granted  complete  freedom 
of  worship  throughout  the  kingdom,  except  in  Paris  ; 
the  establishment  of  courts  in  all  the  Parlements  com- 
posed of  an  equal  number  of  judges  of  both  religionSj 
and  restoration  to  all  their  honours  and  offices ;  while 

1  Me 'moires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valols  (edit.  Guessard). 

187 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

the  Massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew  was  formally  dis- 
avowed and  the  property  of  Coligny  and  other  prominent 
victims  restored  to  their  heirs,1  and  eight  fortresses  handed 
over  to  them,  as  security  for  the  due  observance  of  the 
treaty.  Alenc/m  received  the  addition  to  his  appanage 
of  the  duchies  of  Anjou,  Berry,  Touraine,  and  Maine, 
and  other  lordships,  which  raised  his  revenue  to  400,000 
£cus.  He  now  assumed  the  title  of  Due  d' Anjou,  which 
had  been  that  of  Henri  III.  before  his  accession  to  the 
throne,  and  by  which  we  must  henceforth  refer  to  him. 
Henri  of  Navarre  was  confirmed  in  his  government  of 
Guienne  and  Conde  in  that  of  Picardy.  Finally,  a 
large  sum  was  paid  to  John  Casimir  for  the  wages  of  his 
Reiters,  and  to  compensate  him  for  the  trouble  and 
expense  of  his  invasion  of  France,  besides  which  he  was 
granted  an  annual  pension  of  40,000  livres,  in  order  to 
secure  his  friendship. 

Monsieur  had  advised  his  sister  to  allow  herself  to  be 
included  in  the  treaty,  and  to  demand  the  assignment 
of  her  marriage-portion  in  lands.  But  Catherine  begged 
her  not  to  insist  on  this,  assuring  her  that  she  could 
obtain  from  the  King  whatever  she  desired  ;  and  Mar- 
guerite very  unwisely  yielded,  "  preferring  to  owe  what 
she  might  receive  from  the  King  and  the  Queen  her 
mother  to  their  good-will  alone,  in  the  belief  that  it 
would  be  thus  more  permanently  assured  to  her."  Nor 
did  she  succeed  in  obtaining  permission  to  join  her 
husband,  who,  so  soon  as  peace  was  concluded,  had 
written,  "  inviting  her  to  demand  her  conge."  Catherine 
pleaded,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  that  she  had  pledged  her 

1  The  execution  of  Montgommery  was  also  declared  to  have  been  a 
miscarriage  of  justice,  and,  on  the  demand  of  Alen9on,  that  of  La  Mole 
and  Coconnas  as  well. 

188 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

word  to  the  King  to  bring  her  daughter  back  to  Paris, 
and  that,  if  Marguerite  refused  to  return,  his  Majesty- 
would  imagine  that  she  had  induced  her  to  rejoin  her 
husband,  and  that  she  (the  Queen-Mother)  would  be 
ruined.  She  added  that  she  need  only  remain  at  Court 
until  Monsieur  arrived,  when  she  would  immediately 
obtain  permission  for  her  to  depart.  And  so  very  re- 
luctantly the  Queen  of  Navarre  returned  to  Paris. 


189 


CHAPTER   XIII 

Irritation  aroused  in  the  ultra-Catholic  party  by  the  Treaty  of 
Beaulieu — Formation  of  the  League — Alarm  of  Henri  III., 
who,  to  checkmate  the  Guises,  resolves  to  place  himself  at  its 
head — The  King  of  Navarre  demands  that  his  wife  shall  be 
permitted  to  return  to  him — And  sends  the  Vicomte  de  Duras 
to  conduct  her  to  Beam — Henri  III.  promises  to  send  her 
back,  but  breaks  his  word — The  States-General  meets  at  Blois 
— The  King  signs  the  roll  of  the  League  and  compels  all  the 
principal  persons  of  the  Court  to  do  likewise — The  Estates 
vote  in  favour  of  restoring  the  unity  of  the  faith  by  force,  but 
refuse  to  vote  the  supplies  required  to  carry  on  an  effective 
war — The  King  of  Navarre  sends  Genissac  to  Blois  to  de- 
mand his  wife — Henri  HI.,  in  spite  of  the  reproaches  of 
Marguerite,  refuses  to  allow  her  to  depart — Unpleasant  posi- 
tion of  the  princess  at  Court — Intrigues  of  Mondoucet  in 
Flanders — Under  the  pretext  of  taking  the  waters  of  Spa,  it 
is  decided  that  Marguerite  shall  proceed  to  Flanders,  to  pave 
the  way  for  Anjou's  enterprise. 

THE  Protestants  would  have  been  well  advised,  had  they 
been  satisfied  with  less  favourable  terms  than  they  had 
demanded  and  obtained  at  the  "  Peace  of  Monsieur." 
The  concessions  granted  them  aroused,  as  had  been  the 
case  after  the  Treaty  of  Saint-Germain,  the  greatest 
irritation  among  the  more  zealous  Catholics,  who  regarded 
them  in  the  light  of  a  betrayal  of  their  faith.  The 
Parlement  of  Paris  refused  to  register  the  edict,  and  the 
King  had  to  hold  a  Bed  of  Justice  to  force  it  to 
confirm  it.  The  clergy  of  Notre-Dame  declined  to  allow 

190 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

the  cathedral  choir  to  sing  the  1e  Deum,  which  was 
eventually  chanted  by  the  choristers  of  Henri  III.'s 
private  chapel,  in  the  presence  of  only  those  officials  of 
the  Court,  the  municipality,  and  the  Parlement  whose 
duties  compelled  them  to  attend.  The  illuminations 
at  the  H6tel-de-Ville  were  witnessed  by  a  mere  handful 
of  spectators ;  and  the  reading  of  the  edict  by  the 
Herald-at-Arms  in  the  court  of  the  Louvre  was  listened 
to  in  sullen  silence,  broken  here  and  there  by  angry 
murmurs. 

Soon  it  became  apparent  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  enforce  the  conditions  of  the  peace.  The  Protestants 
in  various  parts  of  the  country  were  attacked,  and  their 
worship  disturbed  by  the  populace,  and,  since  the  per- 
sistent hostility  of  the  Parlements  prevented  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  mixed  tribunals,  they  were  unable  to 
obtain  redress.  Jacques  d'Humieres,  the  Governor  of 
Peronne,  a  friend  of  the  Guises  and  a  bitter  enemy  of 
the  Montmorencies,  refused  to  deliver  that  fortress  to 
Conde,  when,  as  Governor  of  Picardy,  the  prince  de- 
manded to  be  placed  in  possession  of  it,  and  formed 
for  his  support  a  confederacy  between  the  partisans  of 
the  Guises  and  the  bigoted  Catholics  of  the  province. 
The  movement  spread  with  astonishing  rapidity,  espe- 
cially among  the  fanatical  population  of  Paris,  and  soon 
grew  into  a  general  "  Holy  League,"  or  association  of 
the  extreme  Catholic  party  throughout  the  kingdom. 

The  idea  of  the  League  was  not  new.  It  had  been 
conceived  by  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  at  the  time  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  and  the  young  Due  de  Guise  had  made 
a  tentative  attempt  to  carry  out  his  uncle's  scheme,  in 
1568,  in  his  government  of  Champagne.  But  it  remained 
in  a  state  of  conception  until  1576,  when  the  alarm  and 

191 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

resentment  of  the  bigoted  Catholics,  at  the  growth  of 
Protestantism  and  the  impotence  of  the  King  to  arrest 
its  progress,  produced  a  vast  association,  which  soon  came 
to  be  regarded  by  both  priests  and  people  as  the  chief 
bulwark  of  the  ancient  faith. 

Henri  III.,  in  consenting  to  the  demands  of  the  Hugue- 
nots, had  probably  counted  on  the  reaction  which  his 
concessions  would  provoke,  and  was  not  ill-pleased  at 
seeing  "  the  advantages  which  had  been  obtained  by- 
force  and  conceded  with  reluctance,"  re-dcred  futile. 
But  the  formation  of  the  League — whose  members  were 
binding  themselves  to  regard  as  enemies  all  who  refused 
to  join  it,  to  defend  each  other  against  any  assailant, 
whoever  he  might  be,  and  to  endeavour  to  compass  the 
objects  of  the  association  against  no  matter  what  opposition 
— alarmed  him  greatly,  and,  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt 
to  obtain  a  promise  from  the  Guises  that  they  would 
form  no  association  calculated  to  lead  to  a  breach  of  the 
recent  peace,  he  decided  that  the  only  course  open  to 
him  was  to  place  himself  at  its  head.  This  decision 
rendered  a  new  war  inevitable. 

Henri  of  Navarre  had  fared  no  better  in  his  govern- 
ment of  Guienne  than  had  his  cousin  Conde  in  Picardy ; 
the  gates  of  Bordeaux  were  closed  against  him,  and  he 
soon  found  that  his  authority  throughout  the  rest  of  the 
province  was  little  more  than  nominal.  This  effectually 
removed  any  illusion  which  he  might  have  entertained 
as  to  the  solidity  of  the  recent  treaty,  and,  instead  of 
laying  down  his  arms,  he  began  to  make  active  prepara- 
tions for  war.  Nevertheless,  it  did  not  prevent  him 
addressing  energetic  protests  to  the  King  in  regard 
to  the  treatment  to  which  he  had  been  subjected  at 

192 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Bordeaux  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  demanded  that  his 
wife  and  his  sister,  Catherine  de  Bourbon,  who,  like 
her  brother,  had  been  detained  in  a  kind  of  semi-cap- 
tivity at  the  Court  since  the  St.  Bartholomew,  should 
be  given  up  to  him.  His  desire  to  get  possession  of  his 
wife  proves  the  importance  which  he  attached  to  her 
presence  in  his  camp  ;  but,  though  Catherine  de  Bourbon 
was  sent  back,  Henri  III.,  on  one  pretext  or  another, 
continued  to  keep  Marguerite  in  Paris. 

As  time  went  on,  the  King  of  Navarre  grew  more 
insistent,  and,  towards  the  end  of  September,  despatched 
the  Vicomte  de  Duras,  one  of  his  chamberlains,  to  Paris, 
with  a  request  that  Henri  III.  would  give  Marguerite 
into  his  charge,  in  order  that  he  might  conduct  her  to 
Beam.  The  princess,  on  her  side,  did  not  fail  to  second 
Duras's  efforts,  for,  though  she  had  no  particular  desire 
for  her  husband's  society,  to  be  Queen  at  Nerac  or  Pau 
was  to  her  mind  an  infinitely  more  pleasing  prospect 
than  that  of  remaining  as  a  hostage  in  Paris.  "  I  earnestly 
pressed  the  King  to  allow  me  to  depart,"  she  writes, 
"  there  being  no  longer  any  reason  for  refusing  me. 
He  replied,  representing  that  it  was  his  affection  for  me 
and  the  knowledge  of  what  an  ornament  I  was  to  his 
Court  which  made  him  desire  to  delay  my  departure  as 
long  as  possible,  and  that  it  was  his  intention  to  escort 
me  as  far  as  Poitiers  (the  Court  was  then  about  to  set  out 
for  Blois,  for  the  meeting  of  the  States-General,  which 
had  been  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  Peace  of  Beaulieu)  ; 
and  sent  M.  de  Duras  back  with  this  promise. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Henri  III.  had  not  the  smallest 
intention  of  allowing  Marguerite  to  rejoin  her  husband 
and  carry  with  her  into  the  camp  of  the  enemy  all  the 
prestige  and  influence  which  attached  to  her  in  her 

193  N 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

quality  of  a  Daughter  of  France  ;  and  at  the  end  of 
November  1576,  when  the  Estates  met,  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  found  herself  installed,  with  the  rest  of  the 
Royal  Family,  in  the  Chateau  of  Blois. 

The  day  before  the  Estates  opened,  the  King  sum- 
moned the  Queen-Mother  and  some  of  his  Council, 
and,  having  explained  to  them  the  importance  of 
the  League  and  the  danger  which  it  threatened  to  the 
royal  authority,  particularly  if  the  Guises  were  elected 
its  leaders,  announced  that  "  he  had  decided  that  the 
only  way  of  arresting  this  dangerous  combination,  was 
to  place  himself  at  its  head."  He  then,  "  to  show  his 
zeal  for  religion  and  prevent  the  election  of  any  other 
leader,"  sent  for  the  roll  of  the  League,  signed  it  himself, 
as  its  chief,  and  summoning  all  the  principal  personages 
of  the  Court,  compelled  every  one,  from  his  brother  down- 
wards, to  follow  his  example.1  The  selfish  and  treacher- 
ous Anjou,  after  obtaining  by  the  Peace  of  Beaulieu  all 
that  he  desired,  had  been  at  little  pains  to  conceal  his 
dislike  of  his  Protestant  allies,  and  now  deserted  them 
without  the  smallest  compunction. 

The  League,  aided  by  the  whole  influence  of  the 
Court,  had  exerted  itself  to  the  utmost  to  terrorise  the 
elections,  and  the  Huguenots  and  "  Politiques"  seeing 
how  matters  were  going,  had  held  aloof,  with  the  result 
that  when  the  Estates  met,  they  were  altogether  un- 
represented. Anticipating  that  measures  fatal  to  their 
interests  would  be  passed,  they  wished  to  leave  no  pretext 
for  describing  the  States-General  of  Blois  as  a  full  and 
free  meeting  of  the  representatives  of  the  nation.  In 
acting  thus,  they  undoubtedly  committed  a  grave  error, 
since,  notwithstanding  their  abstention  and  the  terrorism 

1  Memolres  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Falois  (edit.  Guessard). 

194 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

of  the  League,  it  was  only  after  long  and  acrimonious 
debates  and  by  a  bare  majority  that  the  Third  Estate 
voted  in  favour  of  the  rupture  of  the  edict,  and  to  deprive 
the  Protestants  of  all  exercise  of  their  religion,  both  in 
public  and  private.  But  to  wage  war  effectively  money 
was  required,  and,  as  the  Estates  absolutely  declined 
to  sanction  any  further  alienation  of  the  Crown  lands, 
or,  indeed,  any  other  expedient  for  raising  supplies,  their 
vote  was  rendered  valueless.  Accordingly,  they  were 
dismissed  by  the  King,  who  reproached  them  bitterly 
with  their  parsimony,  but  was  probably  well  pleased 
at  the  check  which  the  League  had  received.1 

A  few  days  before  the  opening  of  the  States-General^ 
another  emissary  from  the  King  of  Navarre,  in  the 
person  of  the  Seigneur  de  Genissac,2  arrived  at  Blois, 
to  remind  his  Majesty  that  his  promise  to  restore  Mar- 
guerite to  her  husband  was  still  unfulfilled.  But  the 
prince  who  had  just  made  up  his  mind  to  violate  a  treaty, 
was  not  likely  to  attach  much  importance  to  a  mere 
promise,  and  drove  Genissac  from  his  presence  "  with 
harsh  and  threatening  words,  telling  him  that  he  had 
given  his  sister  to  a  Catholic,  and  not  to  a  Huguenot, 
and  that  if  the  King  her  husband  desired  her  presence, 
he  had  better  turn  Catholic  again."3 

Informed  by  Genissac  of  the  rebuff  which  he  had 

1  Mr.  P.  F.  Willert,  "  Henry  of  Navarre  and  the  Huguenots  in 
France,"  p.  126. 

2  Bertrand  de  Pierrebuffiere,  one  of  the  most  intrepid  companions-in- 
arms of  Henri  of  Navarre.     He  figured,  four  years  later,  with  Loignac, 
as  "second"  in  a  singularly  murderous  duel  between  Charles  de  Gon- 
taut-Biron  and  Claude  d'Escars,  Prince  de  Carency,  who  was  assisted  by 
d'Estissac  and  La  Bastide.     Carency  and  both  his  seconds  were  killed. 

8  The  King  of  Navarre  had  been  publicly  readmitted  into  the 
Calvinistic  communion  in  June  1576. 

195 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

received,  Marguerite  hastened  to  the  Queen -Mother's 
cabinet,  where  she  found  both  Catherine  and  the  King, 
and  reproached  the  latter  bitterly  with  the  deceit  he 
had  practised  upon  her  and  his  broken  promise.  "  I 
pointed  out  to  him,"  she  writes,  "  that  I  had  not  married 
for  my  own  pleasure,  nor  at  my  own  desire  ;  that  it 
had  been  by  the  desire  and  authority  of  King  Charles, 
of  the  Queen  my  mother,  and  of  himself  ;  but  that, 
since  they  had  chosen  my  husband  for  me,  they  could 
not  prevent  me  sharing  his  fortune  ;  that  I  wished  to  go 
to  him,  and  that,  if  they  did  not  permit  me  to  do  so,  I 
should  effect  my  escape  and  depart  as  best  I  could,  at 
the  risk  of  my  life." 

"  Now  is  not  the  time,  my  sister,"  said  the  King,  "  to 
importune  me  about  this  promise.  I  admit  what  you 
say,  but  I  have  procrastinated  with  the  object  of  refusing 
it  you  altogether  ;  for,  since  the  King  of  Navarre  has 
turned  Huguenot  again,  I  have  never  approved  of  your 
going  to  him.  What  the  Queen  my  mother  and  I  are 
doing,  is  for  your  good.  I  intend  to  make  war  on  the 
Huguenots  and  to  exterminate  this  miserable  religion, 
which  has  done  us  so  much  evil ;  and  it  would  be  un- 
seemly that  you,  who  are  a  Catholic  and  my  sister, 
should  be  in  their  hands,  in  the  position  of  a  hostage 
from  me.  And  who  knows  whether,  in  order  to  offer 
me  an  irreparable  insult,  they  might  not  wish  to  avenge 
themselves  for  the  harm  I  intend  them,  by  taking  your 
life  ?  No,  no,  you  shall  not  go  ;  and  if,  as  you  say, 
you  attempt  to  escape,  consider  that  you  will  have  both 
myself  and  the  Queen  my  mother  as  your  bitter  foes, 
and  that  we  shall  make  you  feel  our  enmity  by  every 
means  in  our  power."  * 

1  Memoircs  tt  lettres  Je  Marguerite  <k  Valols  (edit.  Guessard). 

196 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

The  Queen  of  Navarre's  position  was  now  a  most 
unpleasant  one.  Although  the  refusal  of  the  Estates 
to  vote  supplies  rendered  any  effective  operations  on 
the  part  of  the  royal  troops  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
hostilities  began  and  were  carried  on  with  much  ferocity 
on  both  sides.  Marguerite  had  the  sorrow  and  morti- 
fication of  seeing  her  only  allies,  Anjou  and  Henri  of 
Navarre,  waging  war  upon  each  other  ;  while  she  herself 
was  obliged  to  remain  under  the  yoke  of  Henri  III. 
and  Catherine,  in  the  midst  of  a  Court  where  her  husband 
was  proclaimed  traitor  and  rebel,  and  where  the  King's 
favourites  lost  no  opportunity  of  exasperating  their 
master  against  him,  and  even  ventured  to  propose  schemes 
for  his  assassination.1 

In  order  to  escape  from  this  intolerable  situation,  the 
Queen  took  counsel  with  some  of  her  friends,  "  to  dis- 
cover some  pretext  for  withdrawing  from  the  Court, 
and,  if  possible,  from  the  kingdom,  until  peace  should 
be  concluded,  either  under  colour  of  making  a  pilgrimage, 
or  paying  a  visit  to  one  of  her  relatives."  Among  those 
whom  she  consulted,  was  the  Princesse  de  la  Roche-sur- 
Yon,2  who  happened  to  be  on  the  point  of  setting  out 
for  Spa,  to  take  the  waters.  Monsieur  was  also  present, 
and  had  brought  with  him  Mondoucet,  the  French 
representative  in  Flanders. 

Mondoucet,  who  had  but  recently  returned  from  a 
residence  of  several  years  in  the  Netherlands,  had  estab- 

1  On  one  occasion,  Loignac,  who,  twelve  years  later,  took  the  leading 
part  in  the  assassination  of  Guise,  proposed  to  go  to  Guienne,  with  ten 
trusty  followers,  and  assassinate  the  King  of  Navarre.  His  offer,  how- 
ever, was  not  accepted 

8  Philippe  de  Montespedon,  widow  of  Charles  de  Bourbon,  Prince 
de  la  Roche-sur- Yon,  Due  de  Beaupreau,  and  mother  of  the  Marquis  de 
Beaupreau,  already  mentioned  by  Marguerite  (see  p.  26  supra). 

197 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

lished  intimate  relations  with  the  leaders  of  the  revo- 
lutionary movement  in  the  Catholic  States,  who  had 
charged  him,  "  to  make  the  King  understand  that  their 
hearts  were  entirely  French,  and  that  they  were  stretch- 
ing out  their  arms  towards  him  in  welcome."  Henri  III., 
however,  what  with  the  League  on  one  side  and  the 
Huguenots  on  the  other,  had  too  much  on  his  hands  at 
that  moment  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of  his  neighbours, 
and  showed  no  desire  to  avail  himself  of  the  invitation. 
Mondoucet,  an  indefatigable  intriguer,  thereupon  ad- 
dressed himself  to  Anjou,  "  who,  being  possessed  of  a 
truly  princely  nature,  cared  only  to  engage  in  impor- 
tant enterprises,  being  born  to  conquer  rather  than  to 
retain."  The  prospect  of  wresting  the  lost  Burgundian 
fiefs  from  the  Spaniard,  and  ruling  them  in  the  name 
of  France,  appealed  strongly  to  that  prince,  who  was  as 
meddlesome  and  ambitious  as  he  was  treacherous  and 
incapable,  and  who,  having  obtained  all  that  he  was  ever 
likely  to  get  in  France  by  the  recent  treaty,  was  already 
beginning  to  cast  about  him  for  some  fresh  field  for  the 
exercise  of  his  talents.  He  had,  therefore,  readily 
entered  into  Mondoucet's  views,  and  it  had  been  arranged 
that  the  latter  should  enter  his  service,  and,  under  the 
pretext  of  escorting  Madame  de  la  Roche-sur-Yon  to 
Spa,  return  to  Flanders  and  continue  his  intrigues. 

The  astute  Mondoucet  was  not  slow  to  perceive  the 
immense  advantage  which  Anjou  might  derive  from  the 
presence  in  Flanders  of  his  beautiful  and  fascinating 
sister,  whose  charms  and  winning  manner,  combined 
with  the  prestige  which  surrounded  her,  might  do  more 
in  a  week  to  pave  the  way  for  Monsieur's  enterprise  than 
the  diplomatist  could  effect  in  a  year.  When,  therefore, 
it  was  suggested  that  Marguerite  should  find  some 

198 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

excuse  for  quitting  France  until  the  war  was  over,  he 
turned  to  Anjou  and  said,  in  a  low  voice  :  "  If,  Monsieur, 
the  Queen  of  Navarre  could  feign  some  indisposition, 
for  which  the  waters  of  Spa,  whither  Madame  de  la 
Roche-sur-Yon  is  bound,  would  be  beneficial,  it  would 
be  extremely  advantageous  to  your  enterprise  in  Flan- 
ders, where  she  would  be  able  to  strike  an  effective 
blow." 

Anjou  was  delighted  with  the  idea  and  exclaimed  : 
"  O  Queen,  seek  nothing  further  !  You  must  go  to  the 
waters  of  Spa,  whither  the  princess  is  going.  I  have 
remarked  that  you  once  had  an  erysipelas  upon  the  arm. 
You  must  say  that  when  the  doctors  ordered  you  these 
waters,  the  season  was  not  so  suitable  for  them,  but  that 
now  is  the  proper  time,  and  that  you  beg  the  King  will 
permit  you  to  go  to  Spa." 

Marguerite,  on  her  side,  asked  nothing  better  than  to 
undertake  the  mission  proposed  to  her.  She  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  tenderly  attached  to  her  brother,  who, 
though  repulsive  both  in  appearance  and  character,1 
seems  to  have  possessed  for  her  some  unaccountable 
attraction.  Moreover,  she  had  inherited  the  Valois 
love  of  adventure,  and  not  a  little  of  her  mother's  fondnes3 

1  L'Estoile  says  that  the  duke's  face  had  been  so  disfigured  by  small- 
pox that  he  appeared  to  have  two  noses,  and  that  after  his  treacherous 
attempt  to  seize  Antwerp,  in  1584,  the  Flemings  made  the  following 
quatrain  about  him  : 

"  Flamans,  ne  soies  etonne"s 
Si  a  Fran9ois  vole's  deux  nez, 
Car  par  etoit  raison  et  usage, 
Faut  deux  nez  a  double  visage." 

The  Due  de  Bouillon  tells  us  that  previous  to  being  attacked  by  the 
small-pox,  Anjou  was  an  extremely  good-looking  youth,  but  the  disease 
transformed  him  into  one  of  the  ugliest  men  possible  to  behold. 

199 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

for  intrigue,  and  the  enterprise  was  one  which  promised 
an  abundance  of  both.  Greatly  to  her  relief,  Henri  III. 
and  Catherine  raised  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  her  pro- 
jected journey,  though  they  must  have  had  a  shrewd 
suspicion  of  what  lay  behind  it.  However,  so  long  as 
she  did  not  rejoin  her  husband,  neither  of  them  cared 
very  much  where  she  went,  or  how  she  employed  her 
time.  As-  for  Anjou  and  his  ambitious  projects,  if  he 
chose  to  pursue  chimeras  and  perhaps  get  a  few  years 
in  some  Spanish  fortress  for  his  pains,  that  was  his  own 
affair,  and  the  diversion  of  his  meddlesome  activity  into 
some  other  realm  than  France  might  not  be  without  its 
advantages.  For  which  reason,  Henri  III.  gave  his 
consent  readily  enough  to  his  sister's  departure,  and 
despatched  a  courier  to  Don  Juan,  who  had  lately  suc- 
ceeded Requescens  as  Governor  of  the  Netherlands, 
begging  him  to  furnish  the  Queen  of  Navarre  with  the 
passports  she  required  to  travel  through  Flanders,  in 
order  to  reach  Spa,  which  was  situated  in  the  bishopric 
of  Liege. 


200 


CHAPTER   XIV 

The  Queen  of  Navarre  sets  out  for  Flanders — Her  suite — She 
arrives  at  Cambrai,  and  seduces  the  commandant  of  the  citadel 
from  his  allegiance  to  his  master — Her  reception  at  Mons, 
where  she  gains  over  the  Comte  and  Comtesse  de  Lalain  to 
her  brother's  cause — Her  meeting  with  Don  Juan — Her  stay 
at  Namur  as  the  guest  of  the  prince — She  departs  for  Liege 
and  is  in  danger  of  being  drowned,  through  an  inundation  of 
the  Meuse — Her  impressions  of  Liege — She  receives  alarming 
intelligence  from  Monsieur — She  sets  out  on  her  return  to 
France. 

THE  Queen  of  Navarre  did  not  set  out  on  her  journey 
immediately,  but  accompanied  the  Court  to  Chenon- 
ceaux,  where  Henri  III.  established  himself,  in  order  to 
be  near  Mayenne,  who  was  laying  siege  to  Brouage.  At 
Chenonceaux  she  remained  until  May  28,  1577,  when, 
after  a  final  conference  with  Anjou,  in  regard  to  his 
projects  and  "  the  service  he  required  of  her,"  she 
started  for  Flanders.  She  was  accompanied  by  the 
Princesse  de  la  Roche-sur-Yon,  Mesdames  de  Tournon,1 
and  Castellane  de  Millon,  Miles.  d'Atri,2  de  Tournon, 
and  seven  or  eight  other  maids-of-honour,  the  handsome 
Philippe  de  Lenoncourt,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  afterwards 
Cardinal,  Charles  d'Escars,  Bishop  of  Langres,  celebrated 

1  Claudine  de  la  Tour-Turenne,  wife  of  Justus   II.,    Seigneur   de 
Tournon,  Comte  de  Roussillon. 

2  Anne  d'Aquaviva,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Atri,  a  Neapolitan  noble. 
She  afterwards  married  the  Comte  de  Chateaudun. 

20 1 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

for  his  eloquence,  the  Marquis  de  Mouy,  and  the  chief 
officers  of  her  household. 

Marguerite,  who  had  inherited  the  sumptuous  tastes 
of  the  Valois  and  the  Medici,  delighted  in  pomp  and 
magnificence,  and  no  princess  of  the  time  made  a  braver 
show  when  travelling,  since,  if  her  train  was  inconsiderable 
in  comparison  with  those  of  the  queens  of  the  great  States, 
this  was  atoned  for  by  the  elegance  of  her  coaches  and 
litters,  the  costly  trappings  of  her  horses  and  mules,  and 
the  rich  liveries  of  her  servants.  "  I  journeyed,"  she 
writes,  "  in  a  litter  fashioned  with  pillars,  lined  inside 
with  rose-coloured  Spanish  velvet,  embroidered  in  gold 
and  having  hangings  of  shot-silk  adorned  with  devices. 
The  sides  of  the  litter  were  of  glass,  each  pane  of  which 
was  covered  with  devices,  there  being  on  the  windows 
or  on  the  lining  forty  different  ones  altogether,  with 
mottoes  in  Spanish  and  Italian  concerning  the  sun  and 
its  influences.  This  was  followed  by  the  litter  of  Madame 
de  la  Roche-sur-Yon,  by  that  of  Madame  de  Tournon, 
my  dame  d'honneur,  by  ten  young  ladies  on  horseback, 
accompanied  by  their  gouvernantes,  and  by  six  coaches> 
or  chariots,  containing  the  rest  of  the  ladies  in  attendance 
upon  the  princess  and  myself." 

By  easy  stages,  the  Queen  passed  through  Picardy, 
"  where  the  towns  had  orders  from  the  King  to  receive 
her  with  the  honour  due  to  her,"  and  reached  Catelet, 
three  leagues  from  the  frontier.  Here  she  received  a 
message  from  Louis  de  Barlemont,  Bishop  of  Cambrai, 
who  sent  to  inquire  the  hour  at  which  she  proposed  leav- 
ing Catelet,  in  order  that  he  might  meet  her  at  the 
entrance  of  his  State.1  She  answered  that  she  would 

1  The  town  of  Cambrai  and  the  country  surrounding  it,  after  many 
ricissitudes,  which  caused  people  to  declare  that  Cambrai  did  not  know 

2OZ 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

arrive  that  same  evening,  but,  according  to  a  manuscript, 
published  by  the  'Bulletin  de  la  Societe  d*  Academique^  a  very 
opportune  coach- accident  compelled  her  to  pass  the  night 
at  an  inn  on  the  road,  where  a  gentleman,  "afflicted, 
doubtless  through  sympathy,  with  an  erysipelas  of  the 
face,"  had  arrived  that  morning.  The  writer  adds  that 
the  gentleman  in  question  was  none  other  than  Mar- 
guerite's old  lover,  the  Due  de  Guise,  who  had  chosen 
this  pretext  for  concealing  the  scar  on  his  cheek,  which 
he  had  received  at  the  Battle  ot  Dormans,  and  which  had 
earned  him  the  name  of  "  la  Balafre  "  ;  and  that,  before 
she  resumed  her  journey,  the  princess  gave  him  ample 
proof  that,  if  Fate  had  bestowed  her  hand  on  another, 
her  heart — or  at  least  some  portion  of  it — still  belonged 
to  the  duke.1 

At  Cambrai,  the  Queen  was  received  by  the  bishop, 
"  who  was  well-attended  by  persons  having  the  dress 
and  appearance  ot  real  Flemings,  who,  in  this  part  of 
the  country,  are  very  stoutly  built"2  The  bishop  enter- 
tained his  royal  visitor  to  a  supper  followed  by  a  ball, 
to  which  he  invited  all  the  principal  ladies  oi  the  town. 
But,  "  being  of  a  formal  and  punctilious  disposition," 
he  did  not  apparently  consider  it  quite  consistent  with 
the  character  ol  his  sacred  office  to  be  present  at  the 

whether  it  belonged  to  France,  Spain,  or  the  Empire,  formed,  at  this 
period,  an  independent  state,  governed  by  the  bishop,  but  under  the 
protection  of  Spain.  The  town  was  definitely  ceded  to  France,  in  1678, 
by  the  Treaty  of  Nimeugen. 

1  Cited  by  M.  Charles  Merki,  La  Rime  Margot  et  la  Jin  det  Valois, 

p.  154. 

2  "///  sont  fort  grossiers"      The   word  "grassier"  is  now  generally 
used  in  an  uncomplimentary  sense  ;  but,  according  to  Mongez,  it  had 
in  the  sixteenth  century  a  different  significance,  and  expressed  only  "la 
hauteur  et  Fefaisseur  du  corps." 

203 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

latter  entertainment,  and,  so  soon  as  supper  was  concluded, 
begged  permission  of  the  Queen  to  retire,  leaving  M. 
d'Inchy,  the  commandant  of  the  citadel  of  Cambrai, 
to  do  the  honours. 

The  prelate's  retirement  was  an  unexpected  stroke 
of  good  fortune  for  our  fair  intriguer,  since  the  town  of 
Cambrai  and  its  citadel  was  considered  the  key  of 
Flanders,  and  if,  by  any  means,  the  commandant  could 
be  won  over  to  Anjou's  cause,  the  duke  would  secure  a 
footing  in  the  country  of  which  it  would  be  far  from 
easy  to  deprive  him.  The  princess,  accordingly,  brought 
every  weapon  in  the  arsenal  of  her  charms  to  bear  upon 
the  hapless  d'Inchy,  and  to  such  good  purpose  that  the 
commandant  was  soon  completely  in  her  toils.  "  God 
vouchsafed  that  I  should  be  so  successful,"  she  says, 
"  and  that  he  should  take  so  much  pleasure  in  my  con- 
versation that,  after  considering  how  he  could  contrive 
to  see  as  much  as  possible  of  me,  he  arranged  to  bear  me 
company  so  long  as  I  remained  in  Flanders,  and,  with 
this  object,  requested  permission  of  his  master  [the  Bishop 
of  Cambrai]  to  escort  me  so  far  as  Namur,  where  Don 
Juan  of  Austria  was  awaiting  me,  saying  that  he  wished 
to  witness  the  splendour  of  my  reception ;  which  permis- 
sion this  Spaniardised  Fleming  was  so  ill  advised  as  to 
accord." 

Long  before  Namur  was  reached,  the  enamoured  com- 
mandant had  confided  to  his  enchantress  that  "  his 
sympathies  were  wholly  French,  and  that  he  was  only 
longing  for  the  day  when  he  might  have  so  gallant  a 
prince  as  her  brother  for  lord  and  master."  So  that  it 
is  little  wonder  that  the  delighted  princess  thought  him 
"  a  finished  gentleman,  entirely  devoid  of  the  ingrained 
rusticity  of  the  Flemings,"  and  far  superior  to  the 

204 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

41  Spaniardised  Fleming,"  his  master,  "  in  both  the  graces 
and  accomplishments  of  mind  and  body." 

From  Cambrai,  the  Queen  proceeded  to  Valenciennes, 
near  which  town  she  was  met  by  the  Comte  de  Lalain, 
Grand  Bailiff  of  Hainault,  his  brother  Emmanuel  de 
Lalain,  Baron  de  Montigny,  and  a  number  of  other 
noblemen  and  gentlemen.  Marguerite  and  her  company 
appear  to  have  been  much  impressed  by  the  fountains, 
clocks,  and  "  the  handiwork  peculiar  to  the  Germans," 
which  they  found  at  Valenciennes,  and  which  "  inspired 
our  French  folk  with  great  astonishment,  they  being  all 
unused  to  behold  clocks  which  discourse  agreeable  vocal 


music." 


After  remaining  a  day  at  Valenciennes,  Lalain  escorted 
the  distinguished  travellers  to  Mons,  where  his  wife,  and 
his  sister-in-law,  the  Marquise  d'Havrec,  "  with  at  least 
eighty  or  a  hundred  ladies  belonging  to  the  country  or 
the  town,"  were  waiting  to  welcome  her,  by  whom  she 
was  received  "  not  like  a  foreign  princess,  but  as  though 
she  had  been  their  rightful  liege-lady." 

Lalain,  indeed,  who  was  a  personage  of  considerable 
wealth  and  great  influence  in  Flanders,  was  already 
half-won  over.  He  had,  Marguerite  tells  us,  always 
been  hostile  to  the  Spanish  domination,  and  had  been 
greatly  incensed  by  the  execution  of  his  relative, 
d'Egmont,  in  1568.  A  devout  Catholic,  he  had  held 
aloof  from  William  of  Orange  and  the  Protestants ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  refused  to  meet  Don  Juan  or 
allow  him  or  any  other  Spanish  representative  to  enter 
his  government.  His  countess,  who  exercised  great 
influence  over  her  husband,  was  likewise  strongly  anti- 
Spanish  in  her  sympathies,  and  Marguerite  was,  there- 
fore, encouraged  to  open  her  mind  to  her  freely.  She, 

•Oj 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

accordingly,  represented  to  her  that,  although,  owing  to 
the  pressure  of  internal  troubles,  it  was  impossible  for 
the  King  of  France  to  engage  in  any  foreign  enterprise, 
there  was  another  deliverer  ready  and  anxious  to  come 
forward,  in  the  person  of  her  brother  Anjou,  of  whose 
valour,  prudence,  generosity,  and  military  skill  she  then 
proceeded  to  paint  a  most  alluring  picture,  adding  that 
it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  appeal  to  a  prince 
whose  assistance  would  be  more  valuable,  "  since  he 
was  so  near  a  neighbour,  and  had  so  large  a  kingdom 
as  that  of  France  at  his  service,  whence  he  could  draw 
the  money  and  the  material  necessary  for  conducting 
the  war." 

The  princess  seems  to  have  put  the  case  for  her  brother 
with  considerable  skill  ;  the  Comtesse  de  Lalain  forth- 
with became  a  devoted  partisan  of  the  duke,  and  had 
little  difficulty  in  persuading  her  husband  to  follow  her 
example.  In  consequence,  when,  at  the  end  of  a  week, 
Marguerite  left  Mons,  Hainault  was  assured  to  Anjou 
as  well  as  Cambrai,  and  the  road  thus  opened  to  the  very 
heart  of  Flanders.  It  had  also  been  agreed  that,  on  her 
return  from  Spa,  Marguerite  should  make  a  stay  at  her 
chateau  of  La  Fere,1  in  Picardy,  where  Monsieur  should 
join  her,  and  that  Lalain's  brother,  Montigny,  should 
repair  thither  to  treat  with  the  duke,  on  behalf  of  the 
Catholic  States. 

Before  leaving  Mons,  the  Queen  of  Navarre  presented 
her  host  and  hostess  with  magnificent  tokens  of  her  good- 
will. To  the  Comtesse  de  Lalain  she  gave  a  casket 
of  jewels,  and  to  her  husband  a  chain  and  pendant  en- 
riched with  precious  stones,  "  which  were  accounted 

1  The  Chateau  of  La  Fere  belonged  to  the  House  of  Bourbon,  and 
had  been  ceded  by  Henri  of  Navarre  to  his  wife  on  their  marriage. 

206 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

of  great  value,  and  were  still  further  esteemed  by  them 
as  coming  from  one  whom  they  loved  as  they  did 
her." 

At  Mons,  Marguerite  had  been  warmly  welcomed  by 
those  who  regarded  her  as  the  representative  of  the  House 
and  the  nation,  to  whom  they  looked  for  their  emanci- 
pation ;  at  Namur,  she  was  to  meet  the  oppressors  of 
the  people  whose  ally  she  had  now  become,  and  to  be  the 
guest  of  a  governor-general,  whose  mission  it  was  to 
discover  and  thwart  any  intrigues  in  which  France  might 
be  tempted  to  indulge  with  his  subjects.  After  the  death 
of  Requescens,  Philip  II.  had  sent  his  half-brother  to 
Flanders,  not  to  fight  but  to  treat ;  and  before  entering 
the  country,  the  prince  had  been  compelled  to  accept 
the  Treaty  of  Ghent — the  "  Perpetual  Edict  " — whereby 
the  liberties  of  the  Netherlands  were  confirmed,  and  the 
right  of  levying  taxes  restored  to  the  Estates,  who,  in 
return,  promised  to  recognise  Don  Juan  as  their  governor, 
so  soon  as  the  last  Spanish  soldier  should  have  left  the 
provinces.  But  the  Treaty  of  Ghent  was  merely  a  truce  ; 
no  sooner  had  the  Spanish  soldiers  been  sent  away,  than 
Don  Juan  began  to  bring  them  back  again  ;  and  the 
States,  exasperated  by  this  breach  of  faith,  were  already 
on  the  point  of  open  rebellion. 

The  Comte  de  Lalain,  accompanied  by  a  number 
of  Flemish  nobles  and  gentlemen,  escorted  Marguerite 
some  distance  beyond  the  frontier  of  Hainault.  But 
when  Don  Juan  and  his  suite  appeared  in  the  distance, 
the  count  and  his  friends  bade  her  farewell,  since,  owing 
to  the  very  strained  relations  which  existed  betweea 
the  leaders  of  the  States  and  the  governor-general,  their 
meeting  would  have  been  exceedingly  embarrassing  for 

both    sides.     D'Inchy,    however,    remained    with    the 

207 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

princess,  as  his  master,  the  Bishop  of  C?mbrai,  belonged 
to  the  Spanish  party. 

Don  Juan  came  attended  by  the  Due  d'Aerschot  and 
his  son,  the  Marquis  d'Havrec,  of  the  House  of  Cr6"y, 
and  two  brothers  of  the  family  of  Rye,  the  Baron  de 
Balan^on  and  the  Marquis  de  Varembon,  the  first  of 
whom  was  Governor  of  Franche-Comt£,  who  had  come 
to  Namur  on  purpose  to  meet  the  Queen.  With  the 
exception  of  Ludovic  de  Gonzague,  "  who  called  himself 
a  relative  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua,"  none  of  Don  Juan's 
own  staff  were  of  any  particular  note,  and  Marguerite 
remarked  the  significant  absence  of  the  Flemish  nobility 
about  the  son  of  Charles  V. 

The  hero  ot  Lepanto  was  then  in  his  thirty-second 
year,  "  le  prince  de  V Europe  le  -plus  beau  et  le  mieux  fait  "  • 
"  endowed  by  Nature  with  a  cast  of  countenance  so  gay 
and  pleasing  that  there  was  hardly  any  one  whose  good- 
will and  love  he  did  not  immediately  win  "  ;  very 
sumptuous  and  fastidious  in  his  attire,  and  reported  to  be 
a  great  admirer  of  the  fair.  He  was  already  acquainted 
with  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  having  stayed  for  a  few  days 
in  Paris,  on  his  way  from  Italy  to  the  Netherlands,  and 
attended  a  ball  at  the  Louvre,  expressly,  so  Brantome 
tells  us,  to  have  the  pleasure  of  beholding  the  princess 
of  whose  charms  he  had  heard  so  much.  And  it  was  on 
this  occasion  that  he  expressed  the  opinion,  which  we 
have  already  cited,  that, "  although  her  beauty  was  rather 
divine  than  human,  it  was  more  calculated  to  ruin  and 
damn  men  than  to  save  them." 

"  Don  Juan,"  continues  Marguerite,  "  alighted  from 
his  horse,  in  order  to  salute  me  in  my  litter.  I  saluted 
him  in  the  French  fashion,1  and  the  Due  d'Aerschot  and 

1  Bv  offering  him  her  cheek  to  kiss. 
208 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

M.  d'Havrec  also.  After  a  few  complimentary  speeches, 
he  remounted  his  horse,  but  continued  to  converse  with 
me  until  we  came  to  the  town,  where  we  did  not  arrive 
until  after  nightfall,  since  the  ladies  of  Mons  .had  not 
permitted  me  to  depart  until  the  last  moment,  and  had 
likewise  amused  me  more  than  an  hour,  by  examining  my 
litter,  taking  great  delight  in  making  me  explain  the 
different  devices.  Everything  at  Namur  was  so  ad- 
mirably ordered — since  the  Spaniards  are  excellent 
managers  in  this  respect — and  the  town  with  its  windows 
and  shops  so  well  lighted,  that  it  seemed  as  though 
illuminated  by  a  second  day." 

Don  Juan  had  prepared  for  his  guest  a  lodging  worthy 
of  one  who  was,  at  the  same  time,  a  Daughter  of  France 
and  a  sister  of  the  Queen  of  Spain.  "  The  house,  in 
which  he  installed  me,"  she  says,  "  had  been  specially 
arranged  for  my  reception.  A  large  and  beautiful  salon 
had  been  contrived,  with  a  suite  of  apartments  consisting 
of  bedrooms  and  cabinets,  the  whole  of  which  were 
furnished  with  the  most  beautiful,  costly,  and  superb 
hangings  that  I  think  I  have  ever  beheld,  being  entirely 
composed  of  velvet  and  satin  tapestries,  with  representa- 
tions of  pillars  in  cloth  of  silk,  covered  with  embroideries 
in  great  rows  and  quiltings  of  gold,  in  the  fullest  and  most 
beautiful  relief  that  it  was  possible  to  behold.  And  in 
the  midst  of  these  columns,  divers  great  personages  were 
depicted,  habited  in  antique  costume,  and  wrought  in  the 
same  kind  of  embroidery."  The  princess  adds  that 
the  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  who  had  become  on  very  friendly 
terms  with  the  Due  d'Aerschot,  learned  from  him  that 
the  stuffs  of  which  these  hangings  were  composed,  were 
a  gift  to  Don  Juan  from  a  wealthy  Turkish  pacha,  in 
recognition  of  the  prince's  magnanimity  in  restoring  to 

209  o 


QUEEN    MAR  GOT 

him,  without  ransom,  his  two  sons,  whom  he  had  taken 
prisoners  at  Lepanto.  Don  Juan  sent  the  pacha's  gift 
to  Milan,  the  taste  of  whose  upholsterers  was  celebrated 
throughout  Europe,  to  have  them  made  into  the  superb 
tapestries  which  so  delighted  the  Queen  of  Navarre  ; 
"  and,  in  order  to  be  reminded  of  the  glorious  manner 
in  which  he  had  acquired  them,  he  caused  the  bed  and 
tester  which  were  in  the  Queen's  chamber,  to  be  em- 
broidered with  naval  battles,  representing  the  victory 
that  he  had  gained  over  the  Turks."  "  Did  ever  more 
perfect  beauty,"  exclaims  the  enthusiastic  M.  de  Saint- 
Poncy,  "  repose  on  a  more  glorious  couch  ?  " 

In  the  morning,  Don  Juan  escorted  the  Queen  to  hear 
Mass,  which  was  performed  according  to  the  Spanish 
custom,  with  an  accompaniment  of  violins  and  cornets. 
Afterwards,  he  entertained  her  to  a  banquet,  at  which 
Marguerite  and  the  prince  dined  at  a  table  apart  from  the 
rest,  Ludovic  de  Gonzague  serving  them  with  wine  on 
bended  knee.  "  When  the  tables  were  cleared,  dancing 
began,  which  lasted  all  the  afternoon.  The  evening  was 
passed  in  the  same  fashion,  Don  Juan  continuing  to 
devote  himself  to  me,  and  observing  frequently  that  he 
saw  in  me  a  resemblance  to  the  Queen,  *  his  Signore,'  by 
whom  he  meant  the  late  Queen  my  sister,  whom  he  had 
greatly  honoured,  and  showing,  by  all  the  respect  and 
courtesy  in  his  power,  the  extreme  pleasure  he  experienced 
at  seeing  me  there." 

Marguerite  had  only  intended  remaining  one  night 
at  Namur ;  but,  as  the  boats  by  which  she  intended  to 
ascend  the  Meuse  so  far  as  Liege  could  not  be  made  ready 
so  soon  as  she  had  expected,  she  was  compelled  to  defer 
her  departure  until  the  morrow.  Don  Juan  took  advan- 
tage of  the  delay  to  arrange  a  water- picnic  for  his  guest's 

210 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

diversion.  A  large  boat  gaily  decorated  with  flags,  and 
accompanied  by  a  number  of  smaller  ones,  filled  with 
musicians  playing  on  hautboys,  cornets,  and  violins, 
conveyed  the  princess  to  an  island  in  the  Meuse.  Here 
the  governor  had  caused  a  banquet  to  be  prepared,  "  in 
a  spacious  room  fashioned  and  decorated  with  ivy, 
around  which  were  compartments  occupied  by  musi- 
cians, who  played  upon  hautboys  and  other  instruments 
during  the  whole  of  supper  time."  After  supper,  the 
company  danced  for  about  an  hour,  and  then  returned 
to  Namur. 

On  the  morrow,  the  Queen  bade  farewell  to  Don  Juan, 
and  continued  her  journey.  If  we  are  to  believe  Bran- 
tome,  brief  as  had  been  her  stay  in  their  midst,  she  had 
succeeded  in  completely  captivating  all  the  Spanish 
officers,  who  were  heard  to  declare  that  "  the  conquest 
of  such  a  beauty  was  worth  more  than  that  of  a  kingdom, 
and  that  happy  would  be  the  soldiers  who  could  serve 
under  her  banner."  1  It  may,  therefore,  have  been  just 
as  well  for  the  allegiance  of  Don  Juan's  followers  that 
his  charming  guest  did  not  prolong  her  visit  to  Namur. 

Hitherto  Marguerite's  journey  had  been  a  smiling  odys- 
sey ;  but  now  disasters  began.  Mile,  de  Tournon,  one  of 
her  maids-of-honour,  was  suddenly  taken  ill,  and  died  a  few 
days  after  their  arrival  at  Liege,  according  to  her  mistress's 
account,  of  a  broken  heart,  caused  by  the  indifference 
to  her  charms  of  the  Marquis  de  Varembon,  already 
mentioned,  with  whom  the  poor  young  lady  was  pas- 
sionately in  love.  At  Huy,  the  first  town  of  the  diocese 
of  Liege,  they  were  surprised  by  an  inundation  of  the 
river,  "  and  had  barely  time  to  spring  on  shore  and  run 
with  all  speed  to  gain  the  summit  of  the  hill,2  before  the 

1  Dames  illustres.  a  Huy  is  situated  on  the  slope  of  a  hill 

211 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

water  had  risen  almost  to  the  level  of  the  house  in  which 
they  had  taken  refuge,  and  where  they  had  to  content 
themselves  for  the  night  with  what  the  master  of  the 
house  had  to  give  them." 

However,  the  party  reached  Liege  in  safety,  where  the 
Queen  met  with  a  most  cordial  reception  from  the 
bishop,1  "  an  exceedingly  virtuous,  discreet,  and  amiable 
nobleman,"  who  insisted  on  surrendering  to  her  his  own 
palace,  which  Marguerite  found  "  handsome  and  com- 
modious, possessing  beautiful  fountains,  gardens  and 
galleries,  the  whole  so  richly  painted  and  gilded,  and  the 
interior  decorated  with  so  much  marble  that  nothing 
could  be  more  magnificent." 

The  princess  was  as  favourably  impressed  with  the 
famous  old  cathedral  city  as  with  its  bishop.  "  The 
town,"  she  says,  "  is  larger  than  Lyons,  and  resembles 
it  in  point  of  structure,  as  the  River  Meuse  flows  through 
its  midst.  It  is  very  well  built,  and  there  is  not  a  canon's 
house  which  does  not  present  the  appearance  of  a  noble 
palace,2  the  streets  long  and  broad,  the  squares  spacious 
and  provided  with  beautiful  fountains ;  the  churches 
decorated  with  so  much  marble — which  is  obtained  hard 
by — that  they  appear  to  be  entirely  constructed  of  it ; 
the  clocks  of  German  workmanship,  chiming,  and  repre- 
senting all  kinds  of  instruments." 

As  Spa  was  only  about  six  leagues  from  Liege,  and  was, 
at  this  period,  nothing  but  a  small  village,  where  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  the  Queen  of  Navarre  and  her 
suite  to  have  found  suitable  accommodation,  Marguerite 
and  the  Princesse  de  la  Roche-sur-Yon  decided  to  remain 

1  Gerard    Groesbeck.     He   was   made   a    cardinal    in  the  following 
year,  and  died  in  1584. 

2  The  canons  of  Liege,  Marguerite  tells  us,  were  all  of  noble  birth, 
the  sons  of  great  German  nobles. 

212 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

at  Liege,  and  have  the  waters  brought  to  them,  the 
doctors  assuring  their  distinguished  patients  that  "  it 
would  lose  none  of  its  strength  or  virtue,  if  it  were 
conveyed  by  night  before  the  sun  had  risen." 

In  spite  of  the  sad  death  of  Mile,  de  Tournon,  Mar- 
guerite seems  to  have  passed  a  very  pleasant  time  at 
Liege,  where  the  bishop,  his  canons,  the  gentry  of  the 
neighbourhood,  and  several  distinguished  foreign  visitors 
formed  with  her  own  suite  a  little  Court,  and  vied  with 
one  another  in  their  efforts  to  amuse  her.  In  the  midst 
of  her  gaiety,  we  may  well  suppose  that  she  did  not  permit 
herself  to  lose  sight  of  the  real  object  of  her  journey,  and 
that  her  brother's  cause  was  strengthened  by  more  than 
one  important  accession. 

Six  weeks  passed — the  time  usually  prescribed  for  the 
Spa  waters — and  Marguerite  and  her  company  were  on 
the  point  of  setting  out  on  their  return  to  France,  when 
news  arrived  that  the  States  had  risen  in  revolt,  and  that 
the  whole  of  Flanders  was  being  ravaged  by  fire  and 
sword.  Hard  upon  this  alarming  intelligence,  came  a 
gentleman  named  Lescar,  bearing  a  letter  from  Anjou 
to  his  sister,  which  contained  still  more  disquieting 
information.  The  duke  wrote  that,  "  although  God 
had  given  him  the  grace  to  serve  the  King  so  well  in  the 
command  of  the  army  entrusted  to  him,  that  he  had  taken 
every  town  which  he  had  been  ordered  to  attack,  and  driven 
the  Huguenots  out  of  all  the  provinces  which  it  had  been 
intended  that  his  army  should  subdue,"  he  was  in  worse 
odour  at  Court  than  ever  ;  that  Bussy,  notwithstanding 
his  services  in  the  field,1  was  also  in  disgrace,  and  as  much 

1  These  services  included  the  ravaging  of  some  score  or  more  square 
leagues  of  country  in  Maine  and  Anjou,  in  which  the  enterprising 
Bussy  robbed  Huguenot  and  Catholic  with  praiseworthy  impartiality 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

persecuted  as  he  had  been  during  the  lifetime  of  Du 
Guast ;  that  every  day  one  or  other  of  them  was  subjected 
to  some  fresh  indignity  ;  that  the  mignons  by  whom 
the  King  was  surrounded  had  contrived  to  seduce  four 
or  five  of  his  most  trusted  followers  from  their  allegiance 
to  Monsieur,  and  persuade  them  to  enter  his  Majesty's 
service  ;  and,  finally,  that  the  King  bitterly  repented  of 
having  permitted  Marguerite  to  make  this  expedition 
to  Flanders,  and  that,  out  of  hatred  of  his  brother,  he 
had  secretly  warned  the  Spaniards  of  the  true  object 
of  her  journey,  in  consequence  of  which,  they  intended 
to  seize  her  on  her  way  back  to  France,  while,  even  if  she 
were  so  fortunate  as  to  escape  falling  into  their  hands, 
she  would  probably  be  captured  by  the  Huguenots,  who 
were  burning  to  avenge  themselves  upon  Anjou,  for  his 
desertion  of  their  cause. 

This  letter,  Marguerite  tells  us,  provided  her  with 
abundant  food  for  reflection,  since,  not  only  would  she 
be  obliged,  in  order  to  gain  France,  to  pass  through 
country  occupied  either  by  Spaniards  or  Protestants, 
but  the  loyalty  of  her  suite  was  far  from  being  above 
suspicion.  Lenoncourt,  though  a  bishop,  was  believed 
to  favour  the  Protestant  cause,  of  which  party  her  first 
equerry,  Salviati,  and  her  treasurer,  Hubanet,  were  also 
secret  adherents ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Bishop 
of  Langres  was  known  to  be  strongly  Spanish  in  his 
sympathies. 

"  In  my  perplexity,"  writes  the  princess,  "  I  was  only 
able  to  confide  in  Madame  de  la  Roche-sur-Yon  and 
Madame  de  Tournon,  who,  realising  our  danger  and  aware 
that  it  would  take  us  five  or  six  days  to  reach  La  Fere — 
during  the  whole  of  which  time  we  should  be  at  the  mercy 
of  one  or  other  of  these  parties — replied  to  me,  with 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

tears  in  their  eyes,  that  God  alone  could  save  us  in  this 
hour  of  peril;  that  I  must  commend  myself  to  His  care, 
and  then  act  as  He  should  inspire  me  ;  that,  as  for  them- 
selves, notwithstanding  that  one  was  ill  and  the  other 
old,  I  was  not,  on  that  account,  to  hesitate  to  travel  by 
long  stages,  as  they  would  undertake  anything  in  order 
to  deliver  me  from  this  danger. 

Marguerite  then  confided  her  troubles  to  the  sym- 
pathetic ear  of  the  Bishop  of  Liege,  "  who  behaved 
like  a  father  to  her,"  and  offered  her  the  services  of  the 
grand-master  of  his  Household,  and  horses  to  convey  her 
as  far  as  she  desired ;  and,  as  a  passport  from  William  of 
Orange  would  probably  be  respected  by  the  Protestants, 
she  despatched  Mondoucet  to  him  to  obtain  one.  Mon- 
doucet,  however,  did  not  return,  the  fact  being  that 
William,  who  had  penetrated  the  mystery  of  Marguerite's 
intrigues,  and  had  no  desire  to  see  himself  supplanted  in 
the  direction  of  affairs  by  a  foreign  prince,  declined 
either  to  send  the  passport  or  to  allow  the  envoy  to 
depart. 

After  waiting  two  or  three  days,  the  Queen  of  Navarre's 
patience  was  exhausted,  and  she  announced  her  intention 
of  taking  her  departure  on  the  morrow.  The  Bishop  of 
Auxerre  and  her  treasurer,  Salviati,  strongly  urged  her 
to  await  the  arrival  of  the  expected  passport,  and  when 
they  found  their  counsel  unheeded,  the  latter  declared 
that  there  was  not  sufficient  money  in  his  hands  even  to 
defray  the  cost  of  their  stay  in  Liege,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  journey  before  them  ;  a  statement  which,  when 
Marguerite,  on  her  arrival  in  France,  examined  her 
accounts,  was  found  to  be  false,  "  there  being^'enough 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  her  Household  for  more  than 
six  weeks."  The  difficulty  was  eventually  surmounted 

215 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

by  the  intervention  of  Madame  de  la  Roche-sur-Yon, 
who  advanced  the  sum  required,  and,  after  having  pre- 
sented the  hospitable  bishop  with  a  magnificent  diamond 
worth  three  thousand  ecus,  and  his  servants  with  rings 
or  gold  chains,  the  princess  bade  farewell  to  the  good 
town  of  St.  Hubert,  and  set  out  on  her  return  to  France, 
"  with  nothing  in  the  shape  of  a  passport  save  her  trust 
in  God." 


sit 


CHAPTER   XV 

Marguerite's  adventures  at  Huy  and  Dinant — Attempt  of  the 
Spaniards  to  seize  her  at  the  latter  town — She  outwits  them, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  townspeople,  and  continues  her 
journey — Perilous  situation  at  Flcurines — At  Cateau-Cam- 
br£sis  she  learns  that  the  Huguenots  are  lying  in  wait  for  her 
on  the  French  frontier — She  escapes  them  and  proceeds  to  her 
chateau  of  La  Fere,  where  she  is  joined  by  Monsieur — Visit  of 
the  Flemish  delegates  to  La  F£re. 

IF  Marguerite's  journey  to  Liege  had  resembled  a  royal 
progress,  her  return  thence  was  like  the  retreat  of  a  beaten 
army  through  a  hostile  country,  with  every  stage  marked 
by  some  perilous  adventure.  Her  first  day's  journey 
brought  her  to  Huy,  the  place  where  she  and  her  party 
had  so  narrowly  escaped  being  drowned  a  few  weeks 
previously.  This  town  was  under  the  sovereignty  of 
the  bishop,  but,  on  the  outbreak  of  the  insurrection,  it 
had  declared  for  the  States,  and  refused  any  longer  to 
recognise  the  authority  of  its  lord,  who  had  announced 
his  intention  of  observing  a  strict  neutrality.  "  In 
consequence  of  this,"  writes  Marguerite,  "  the  townsfolk 
paid  no  attention  to  the  bishop's  grand-master,  who 
accompanied  us,  but,  having  been  alarmed,  just  as  I 
arrived,  by  the  news  that  Don  Juan  had  seized  upon 
the  citadel  of  Namur,  no  sooner  had  we  reached  our 
lodging,  than  they  began  sounding  the  tocsin,  dragging 
the  artillery  about  the  streets,  and  pointing  it  against 
my  lodging,  before  the  entrance  to  which  they  stretched 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

chains,  in  order  to  prevent  our  communicating  with  one 
another.  And  in  this  state  of  disquietude  they  left  us 
all  night,  without  giving  us  an  opportunity  of  remonstrat- 
ing with  them,  being  all  common  persons,  brutal  and 
unreasoning." 

By  the  morning,  the  alarm  of  the  good  folk  of  Huy 
had  somewhat  subsided,  and  they  permitted  the  travellers 
to  depart,  though  not  before  they  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  line  the  sides  of  the  street  in  which  the  Queen's 
lodging  was  situated  with  serried  rows  of  portly  burghers 
armed  to  the  teeth,  through  which  the  travellers  solemnly 
defiled,  and  arrived  the  same  evening  at  Dinant,  where 
a  far  more  exciting  and  picturesque  adventure  awaited 
them.  As  however,  this  is  not  only  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting episodes  of  Marguerite's  journey,  but  reveals  the 
princess  at  her  very  best  as  a  writer,  we  cannot  do  better 
than  follow  the  example  of  her  French  biographers, 
M.  de  Saint-Poncy  and  M.  Charles  Merki,  and  permit 
her  to  relate  it  in  her  own  words  : 

"  We  proceeded  to  Dinant,  where  we  passed  the  night, 
and  where,  by  ill-chance,  the  townsfolk  had  that  very 
day  elected  their  burgomasters,  who  are  equivalent  to 
consuls  in  Gascony  and  sheriffs  in  France.  The  whole 
place  was  that  day  given  over  to  carousing,  every  one  was 
drunk,  none  of  the  magistrates  obeyed,  in  short,  there 
was  a  veritable  chaos  of  confusion.  And,  to  make  our 
position  worse,  the  grand-master  of  the  Bishop  of  Liege 
had  formerly  been  at  war  with  these  people,  and  was 
regarded  by  them  as  a  mortal  foe. 

"  This  town,  when  in  its  right  senses,  is  upon  the 
side  of  the  States ;  but  now  Bacchus  reigned  there 
supreme  ;  the  people  had  lost  all  self-control,  and  recog- 
nised no  one's  authority.  So  soon  as  they  perceived  us 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

approaching  the  outskirts  with  a  numerous  train,  they 
forthwith  were  seized  with  alarm.     Leaving  their  glasses 
they  flew  to   arms,  and,  instead  of  opening  the  gates, 
rushed  tumultuously  to  close  the  barrier  against  us. 

"  I  had  despatched  a  gentleman  in  advance,  together 
with  the  foragers  and  the  marechal-des-logis*  to  beg  the 
townsfolk  to  permit  us  to  enter  ;  but  I  found  they  had 
all  been  stopped  at  the  barrier,  where  no  attention  was 
paid  to  their  demands.  Finally,  I  stood  up  in  my  litter, 
and,  removing  my  mask,  made  a  sign  to  one  of  the  most 
important  persons  that  I  desired  to  speak  with  him  ; 
and,  on  his  approaching  me,  I  begged  that  he  would 
enjoin  silence,  in  order  that  I  might  make  myself  heard. 
When  this  had  with  great  difficulty  been  effected,  I 
informed  them  who  I  was,  and  of  the  object  of  my 
journey,  and  that,  far  from  desiring  any  harm  to  them 
by  my  coming,  I  did  not  wish  even  to  give  them  cause 
for  suspecting  such  a  thing ;  that  I  begged  them  to 
grant  admittance  to  my  women  and  myself  for  that  night, 
together  with  as  few  of  my  male  attendants  as  they 
pleased,  and  that  the  rest  should  remain  in  the  suburbs. 
To  this  proposal  they  assented  and  granted  my  request. 

"  I  entered  their  town  thus,  attended  by  the  most 
important  persons  of  my  company,  amongst  whom  was 
the  Bishop  of  Liege's  grand-master,  who  was  unhappily 
recognised  just  as  I  was  entering  my  lodging,  with  all 
this  armed  and  drunken  mob  at  my  heels.  Thereupon, 
they  began  hurling  insults  at  this  worthy  fellow,  and 
wished  to  set  upon  him,  although  he  was  a  venerable 
old  man,  with  a  white  beard  descending  to  his  girdle. 

1  The  marechal-des-logis  was  an  officer  whose  duty  it  was  to  preceds 
the  Court  or  the  households  of  great  personages  when  travelling,  to  make 
arrangements  for  their  accommodation. 

ZI9 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

I  made  him  enter  my  lodging,  against  the  earthen 
walls  of  which  these  drunkards  directed  a  shower  of  balls 
from  their  arquebuses. 

"  Upon  perceiving  this  tumult,  I  inquired  if  the  master 
of  the  house  were  within.  By  good  fortune,  he  happened 
to  be  at  home.  I  begged  him  to  go  to  the  window  and 
arrange  for  me  to  speak  to  the  leading  townspeople, 
which  he  did  everything  possible  to  accomplish.  At 
last,  having  shouted  for  some  time  through  the  windows, 
the  burgomasters  came  to  speak  with  me,  so  drunk  that 
they  knew  not  what  they  were  saying.  I  assured  them 
that  I  was  quite  unaware  that  this  grand-master  was  their 
enemy,  and  represented  to  them  how  serious  a  thing  it 
was  to  offend  a  person  of  my  quality,  who  was  a  friend  of 
all  the  principal  lords  of  the  States,  and  that  I  was  sure 
that  the  Comte  de  Lalain  and  all  the  other  leaders 
would  be  greatly  annoyed  at  the  reception  which  they 
had  given  me.  At  the  mention  of  M.  de  Lalain's  name, 
they  all  assumed  a  different  attitude,  and  evinced  more 
respect  for  him  than  for  any  of  the  kings  to  whom  I 
was  related.  The  eldest  among  them  inquired,  smiling 
and  hesitating,  whether  I  was  indeed  a  friend  of  M.  de 
Lalain  ;  and  I,  perceiving  that  my  relationship  to  him 
was  of  more  service  to  me  than  that  of  all  the  potentates 
in  Christendom,  replied  :  *  Yes,  I  am  his  friend  and 
likewise  his  kinswoman.'  Upon  this,  they  did  me 
reverence,  kissed  my  hand,  and  became  as  courteous  as 
they  had  before  been  insolent,  begging  me  to  excuse  their 
behaviour,  and  promising  that  they  would  do  no  harm 
to  the  worthy  grand-master,  and  suffer  him  to  depart, 
with  me." 

But  Marguerite  was  not  yet  out  of  her  troubles. 

"  Upon  the  following  morning,"  she  continues,  "  as 

220 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

I  was  about  to  proceed  to  Mass,  a  person  named  Du 
Bois — the  agent  whom  the  King  (Henri  III.)  had  placed 
near  Don  Juan,  and  who  was  strongly  Spanish  in  his 
sympathies — arrived,  and  informed  me  that  he  had 
received  letters  from  the  King,  charging  him  to  seek 
me  and  conduct  me  safely  on  my  homeward  journey  ; 
that,  for  this  purpose,  he  had  begged  Don  Juan  to  place 
Barlemont,  with  a  troop  of  cavalry  at  his  disposal,  to 
serve  as  an  escort  and  to  conduct  me  in  safety  to  Namur, 
and  that  I  must  request  the  townspeople  to  permit  M. 
de  Barlemont,  who  was  one  of  the  nobles  of  the  country, 
to  enter  with  his  troops,  to  escort  me  out  of  the  town. 
"  This  had  been  planned  with  a  double  object ;  first, 
to  seize  the  town  for  Don  Juan,  and,  secondly,  to  cause 
me  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards.  I  found 
myself  in  very  great  perplexity  ;  but,  after  taking  counsel 
with  the  Cardinal  de  Lenoncourt,1  who  was  no  more 
anxious  than  I  was  to  fall  into  Spanish  hands,  we  decided 
that  we  must  ascertain  from  the  townspeople  whether 
there  were  not  some  road  whereby  I  might  escape  M. 
de  Barlemont's  troop.  I,  therefore,  left  the  little  agent 
Du  Bois  to  entertain  M.  de  Lenoncourt,  and  passed 
into  another  apartment,  whither  I  summoned  some  of 
the  townsfolk  and  informed  them  that,  if  they  admitted 
M.  de  Barlemont's  troop,  they  would  be  lost,  as  they  would 
seize  the  town  for  Don  Juan.  I  counselled  them  to  arm, 
and  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  at  their  gate,  in  the 
attitude  of  men  who  had  been  forewarned  and  had  no 
intention  of  allowing  themselves  to  be  surprised,  and 
only  to  permit  M.  de  Barlemont  to  enter  alone,  without 
any  of  his  followers. 

1  Lenoncourt,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  was  not  created  a  cardinal  until 
1585. 

221 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

"  As  the  effect  of  the  wine  of  the  preceding  day  had 
passed  off,  they  approved  my  reasons,  and  believing  what 
I  said,  offered  to  risk  their  lives  in  my  service,  and  to 
furnish  me  with  a  guide  to  conduct  me  out  of  the  town 
by  a  road  which  would  place  the  river  between  myself 
and  Don  Juan's  soldiers,  and  leave  them  so  far  behind 
that  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  overtake  me  ; 
while  I  was  to  travel  by  way  of  such  houses  and  towns 
as  were  on  the  side  of  the  States. 

"  Having  arrived  at  this  decision  with  them  I  sent 
them  to  admit  M.  de  Barlemont  alone,  who,  so  soon  as 
he  had  entered,  endeavoured  to  persuade  them  to  allow 
his  followers  to  enter  likewise.  But,  upon  that,  they 
turned  upon  him,  and  were  like  to  have  put  him  to  death, 
vowing  that  if  he  did  not  withdraw  his  men  out  of  sight 
of  the  town,  they  would  fire  upon  them  with  their 
artillery.  This  they  did  in  order  to  allow  me  time  to 
cross  the  river  before  the  soldiers  could  overtake  me. 

"  After  M.  de  Bariemont  had  been  admitted  into  the 
town,  he  and  the  agent  Du  Bois  used  every  possible 
persuasion  to  induce  me  to  proceed  to  Namur,  where 
Don  Juan  was  awaiting  me  ;  and,  after  having  heard 
Mass  and  partaken  of  a  hasty  dinner,  I  left  my  lodging* 
accompanied  by  two  or  three  hundred  armed  citizens, 
and,  whilst  continuing  to  converse  with  M.  de  Barlemont 
and  the  agent  Du  Bois,  took  my  way  straight  to  the  river- 
gate,  which  was  in  the  opposite  direction  to  the  Namur 
road,  where  M.  de  Barlemont's  men  were  drawn  up. 
They,  summoning  up  their  courage,  told  me  that  I  was 
not  going  in  the  right  direction  ;  but  I,  holding  them 
still  in  conversation,  continued  my  way  until  I  arrived  at 
the  gate  of  the  town.  I  passed  through  it,  accompanied 
by  a  part  of  the  townsfolk,  and  redoubling  my  speed 


OUEEN   MARGOT 

towards  the  river,  embarked  on  the  boat  awaiting  me, 
which  I  made  all  my  suite  enter  as  quickly  as  possible  ; 
M.  de  Barlemont  and  the  agent  Du  Bois  calling  out  to 
me  all  the  while  from  the  water-side  that  I  was  not  doing 
right,  since  I  was  acting  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the 
King,  who  desired  me  to  pass  by  way  of  Namur. 

"  In  spite  of  their  remonstrances,  we  promptly  crossed 
the  river  ;  and,  whilst  our  litters  and  horses  were  being 
conveyed  across,  which  necessitated  two  or  three  journeys, 
the  citizens,  in  order  to  enable  me  to  gain  time,  enter- 
tained M.  de  Barlemont  and  the  agent  Du  Bois  with 
grievances  and  complaints,  arguing  with  them,  in  their 
patois,  about  the  wrong  Don  Juan  had  committed  in 
breaking  faith  with  the  States,  and  putting  an  end  to 
the  peace,  and  about  the  old  quarrels  relating  to  Comte 
d'Egmont's  death,  threatening  all  the  time  that  if 
M.  de  Barlemont's  soldiers  appeared  near  the  town,  they 
would  open  fire  upon  them  with  their  artillery.  They 
thus  gave  me  time  to  proceed  so  far  that  I  had  no  longer 
any  cause  to  fear  these  soldiers,  guided  as  I  was  by  God 
and  by  the  man  with  whom  they  had  provided  me."  x 

In  the  evening,  the  Queen  arrived  at  a  chateau  called 
Fleurines,  belonging  to  a  nobleman  of  that  name,  a 
zealous  partisan  of  the  States  and  a  friend  of  the  Comte 
de  Lalain.  Marguerite  had  no  doubt  that  she  would 
receive  from  the  Seigneur  de  Fleurines  a  very  cordial 
welcome  ;  but,  unfortunately,  when  she  arrived,  that 
gentleman  happened  to  be  from  home,  and  had  left 
his  wife  in  charge  during  his  absence.  Apparently,  he 
had  not  failed  to  impress  upon  her  the  necessity  of  guard- 
ing against  one  of  those  surprises  so  frequent  during 
these  wars,  for  the  moment  the  princess  and  her  company 

1  Memoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  (edit.  Guessard). 

223 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

had  entered  the  outer  courtyard  of  the  chateau,  the 
gates  of  which  had  been  left  open,  the  good  lady  took 
fright  and  fled  to  the  keep,  "raising  the  drawbridge, 
and  determined,  however  much  they  might  entreat,  not  to 
allow  them  to  come  in."  Almost  at  the  same  moment, 
a  body  of  some  three  hundred  Spaniards,  whom  Don 
Juan  had  sent  to  intercept  Marguerite  and  seize  upon 
the  Chateau  of  Fleurines,  where  he  had  ascertained 
that  she  intended  to  stay  that  night,  appeared  upon  an 
eminence  about  a  thousand  paces  off. 

The  situation  of  the  travellers  was  now  a  very  pre- 
carious one,  for  the  outer  court  was  defended  only  by  a 
wretched  wall  and  a  rickety  door,  which  could  be  forced 
with  very  little  trouble,  and  the  terrified  chatelaine  con- 
tinued deaf  to  all  entreaties  to  admit  them  into  the 
fortified  part  of  the  building.  Happily,  however,  the 
Spaniards  were  too  far  off  to  comprehend  the  situation 
of  affairs,  and,  having  seen  the  Queen  and  her  suite  enter 
the  chateau,  supposed  them  to  be  in  safety,  and,  ac- 
cordingly, quartered  themselves  on  a  village  hard-by, 
intending  to  seize  them  when  they  took  their  departure 
on  the  morrow. 

At  night-fall,  however,  to  the  intense  relief  of  the 
whole  party,  M.  de  Fleurines  arrived,  having  been 
despatched  by  the  Comte  de  Lalain  to  escort  the  Queen 
of  Navarre  through  Flanders,  as  the  count  himself  was 
unable  to  leave  the  army  of  the  States,  of  which  he  had 
been  appointed  commander.  M.  de  Fleurines  seems  to 
have  brought  with  him  a  considerable  following,  for 
when  Marguerite  and  her  party  left  the  chateau,  the 
following  morning,  the  Spaniards  did  not  attempt  to 
molest  them. 

Their  journey  was  pleasant  and  uneventful,  and  "  they 

224 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

did  not  pass  through  any  town  in  which  she  was  not 
honourably  and  amicably  received."  The  princess's 
only  regret  was  that  she  was  unable  to  travel  by  way 
of  Mons  and  see  her  friend,  Madame  de  Lalain,  again. 
From  Nivelles,  she  sent  a  letter  to  the  countess  to  inform 
her  of  her  whereabouts  and  her  disappointment  at  being 
prevented  from  paying  her  a  return  visit,  upon  receiving 
which  that  lady  despatched  "  some  persons  of  quality  " 
to  escort  the  Queen  to  the  frontier  of  Cambr6sis.  On 
taking  leave  of  them,  Marguerite  begged  them  to  take 
to  Madame  de  Lalain,  as  a  souvenir  of  their  friendship, 
"  one  of  her  gowns,  composed  of  black  satin,  all  covered 
with  raised  embroideries,  which  she  had  heard  her 
admire  very  much  when  she  wore  it  at  Mons,  and  which 
had  cost  her  twelve  hundred  crowns." 

But  the  Queen  had  yet  another  adventure  in  store 
for  her.  At  Cateau-Cambresis,  she  received  warning 
that  a  band  of  French  Protestants,  rivalling  in  audacity 
her  foreign  enemies,  were  lying  in  wait  for  her  on  the 
frontier.  Marguerite,  however,  displayed  her  customary 
presence  of  mind,  and,  suspecting  that  her  treasurer, 
Salviati,  and  other  members  of  her  suite  were  in  com- 
munication with  the  Huguenots,  gave  orders  that  the 
party  should  resume  their  journey  an  hour  before  day- 
break. Upon  sending  for  their  litters  and  horses,  how- 
ever, "  the  Chevalier  Salviati  began  procrastinating  just 
as  he  had  done  at  Liege,"  whereupon,  continues  the 
princess,  "  since  I  knew  that  he  did  this  with  an  object, 
I  abandoned  my  litter,  and,  mounting  on  horseback, 
followed  by  those  of  my  people  who  were  ready  first, 
succeeded  in  reaching  Catelet  by  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  having  thus,  through  the  mercy  of  God, 
escaped  all  the  snares  and  pitfalls  of  my  enemies." 

225  p 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

From  Catelet,  Marguerite  proceeded  to  her  chateau 
of  La  Fere,  where  she  arrived  on  October  1, 1577.  At 
Le  Fere,  she  found  a  messenger  from  the  Due  d'Anjou 
awaiting  her,  with  orders  to  return  and  inform  his  master 
immediately  the  Queen  arrived.  The  duke  wrote  that 
peace  had  already  been  concluded,1  and  that  the  King 
was  on  the  point  of  return  to  Paris ;  but  that,  as  regarded 
himself,  "  his  condition  had  gone  from  bad  to  worse," 
and  he  and  his  friends  were  subjected  to  so  many  slights 
and  indignities  that  he  had  no  desire  to  reside  there, 
and  awaited  her  arrival  at  La  Fere  with  extreme  im- 
patience, in  order  that  he  might  join  her.  Marguerite 
at  once  sent  back  the  courier,  and  Monsieur,  having 
despatched  Bussy  to  Angers,  with  the  greater  part  of 
his  Household,  set  out  for  Picardy,  accompanied  by 
only  some  fifteen  or  twenty  attendants.2 

Marguerite  assures  us  that  it  was  one  of  the  greatest 
pleasures  which  she  had  ever  experienced  to  receive 
under  her  own  roof  "  one  whom  she  loved  and  honoured 
so  much,"  and  that  she  devoted  herself  to  his  entertain- 
ment with  such  success  "  that  he  would  willingly  have 
exclaimed  with  St.  Peter  :  '  Here  let  us  raise  our  taber- 
nacles,' had  it  not  been  that  *  the  right  royal  courage 
and  generosity  of  soul  which  distinguished  him  incited 
him  to  nobler  deeds.'  The  tranquillity  of  our  Court," 
she  continues,  "  compared  wth  the  agitations  of  the 
one  from  which  he  came,  rendered  all  the  pleasures 
which  he  tasted  there  so  sweet,  that  he  could  not  prevent 
himself  from  perpetually  exclaiming  :  *  Oh,  my  queen, 

1  At  Bergerac,  September  17,  1577. 

*  "  Wednesday,  gth  October,  Monsieur,  brother  of  the  King,  arrived 
in  Paris  .  .  .  whence  he  set  out  on  Saturday  the  I  zth  to  go  to  La  Fere, 
in  Picardy,  to  see  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  his  sister." — L'EsroiLi. 

226 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

how  sweet  it  is  to  be  with  you.  Mon  Dieu  !  This  society 
is  a  paradise  replete  with  all  manner  of  delights,  while 
that  from  which  I  came  is  a  hell  filled  with  all  kinds  of 
dissensions  and  torments.' ' 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  Marguerite  had 
negotiated  at  Mons  the  alliance  of  the  Comte  de  Lalain, 
it  had  been  agreed  that  on  her  return  to  France,  she 
should  place  Anjou  in  communication  with  the  leaders 
of  the  States,  for  which  purpose,  Lalain  should  send  his 
brother,  the  Baron  de  Montigny,  to  La  Fere.  Monsieur, 
having  expressed  his  approval  of  this  arrangement, 
towards  the  end  of  November,  Montigny  arrived  at  La 
Fere,  accompanied  by  four  or  five  other  Flemish  nobles. 

The  delegates,  who  were  received  by  the  fair  chate- 
laine with  that  charming  affability  which  gained  all 
hearts,  assured  Anjou  of  the  devotion  of  a  great  part  of 
the  nobility,  and  promised  him,  in  Lalain's  name,  the 
whole  of  Hainault  and  Artois,  with  their  fortresses. 
One  of  them,  also,  was  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from  M. 
d'Inchy,  the  gentleman  whom  Marguerite's  charms  had 
so  completely  subjugated,  offering  to  place  the  citadel 
of  Cambrai  in  the  duke's  hands  After  several  con- 
ferences, it  was  decided  that  Anjou  should  enter  Flanders 
with  his  troops  in  the  following  spring,  and  that,  while  he 
occupied  himself  in  raising  men,  his  Flemish  allies  should 
foment  a  movement  in  his  favour.  Montigny  and  his 
colleagues  then  returned  home,  carrying  with  them,  as 
a  pledge  of  the  alliance  just  concluded,  gold  medals 
bearing  the  portraits  of  the  duke  and  the  Queen  of 
Navarre ;  while  Monsieur  forthwith  set  out  for  Paris,  to 
endeavour  to  obtain  from  Henri  III.  the  necessary 
assistance  for  his  enterprise.1 

1  Memoires  ft  lettru  de  Marguerite  de  Valoit  (edit.  Guessard). 

227 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Such  was  the  conclusion  of  Marguerite's  eventful 
journey  to  the  Netherlands,  which,  as  one  of  her  bio- 
graphers very  justly  remarks,  unites  to  the  attraction 
of  a  romance  the  importance  of  a  political  mission,1 
and  in  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  the  princess  displayed 
qualities  but  seldom  found  in  one  of  her  sex :  great  courage 
and  presence  of  mind,  a  rare  tact,  and  considerable 
diplomatic  ability.  If  Anjou's  enterprise  was  doomed 
to  failure,  it  was  due  to  the  ill-will  of  Henri  III.,  and 
because  he  himself  was  altogether  unequal  to  the  part 
which  he  aspired  to  play,  and  was  certainly  not  the  fault 
of  his  courageous  and  talented  sister,  for  very  seldom 
have  the  initial  difficulties  of  so  important  an  under- 
taking been  overcome  with  so  much  skill  and  address. 

1  Comte  L6o  dc  Saint-Poncy,  Marguerite  dt  Valois,  i.  475. 


223 


CHAPTER   XVI 

The  Queen  of  Navarre  returns  to  Paris — She  demands  and 
obtains  a  new  promise  from  the  King  and  Queen-Mother  to 
permit  her  to  join  her  husband,  and  also  to  assign  her  her 
dowry  in  lands — Henri  III.  opposed  to  Anjou's  Flemish  enter- 
prise— Quarrels  of  Bussy  and  the  mignons — Insolent  behaviour 
of  the  King's  favourites  towards  Monsieur — The  latter  seeks 
permission  to  withdraw  for  a  time  from  Court,  but  is  arrested 
by  order  of  the  King — An  extraordinary  scene — Monsieur  is 
set  at  liberty,  but  forbidden  to  leave  the  Louvre — Aided  by 
Marguerite,  he  again  escapes  and  retires  to  Angers — Unsuc- 
cessful effort  of  Catherine  to  induce  him  to  return. 

SHORTLY  after  her  brother's  departure,  Marguerite,  in 
her  turn,  set  out  for  Paris,  where  she  had  determined  to 
renew  her  request  to  Henri  III.  to  permit  her  to  rejoin 
her  husband  in  Gascony.  At  Saint-Denis,  she  was  met 
by  the  King,  the  Queen,  the  Queen-Mother,  Anjou, 
and  the  whole  Court,  and  received  with  much  cordiality, 
"  their  Majesties  taking  great  pleasure  in  making  her 
describe  the  splendour  and  magnificence  of  her  journey 
and  sojourn  at  Liege,  and  the  adventures  consequent 
upon  her  return." 

Marguerite  took  advantage  of  the  good-humour 
which  Henri  III.  and  Catherine  seemed  to  be  in  to  make 
her  request  to  them  that  very  evening,  "  entreating  them 
not  to  take  it  amiss,  if  she  begged  them  to  consent  to  her 
going  to  rejoin  her  husband,  since,  as  peace  was  now 
concluded,  there  was  nothing  which  could  excite  their 

229 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

suspicion,  and  it  would  be  unseemly  and  injurious  for 
her,  if  she  deferred  her  departure  any  longer."  Both 
their  Majesties  appeared  to  approve  of  her  resolution, 
and  Catherine  declared  that  she  would  herself  accompany 
her  daughter  to  the  South,  as  it  was  necessary  that  she 
should  visit  that  part  of  the  country  in  the  interests 
of  the  King  ;  and  she  told  Henri  that  he  ought  to  furnish 
his  sister  with  the  funds  necessary  for  her  journey ; 
which  he  promised  to  do. 

Emboldened  by  the  success  of  her  application,  the 
princess  then  reminded  her  mother  of  the  promise  she 
had  made  her  at  the  time  of  the  Peace  of  Beaulieu  ;  that, 
in  the  event  of  her  returning  to  her  husband,  she  should 
have  certain  lands  assigned  her  for  her  marriage-portion  ; 
and  this  their  Majesties  also  promised  should  be  arranged. 

Marguerite  was  anxious  to  set  out  early  in  the  following 
January,  as  the  approaching  departure  of  Anjou  for 
Flanders  made  her  more  desirous  than  ever  of  quitting 
the  Court.  But,  "  in  spite  of  her  daily  solicitations," 
the  King's  promises  were  only  fulfilled  "  in  Court 
fashion,"  and  she  was  compelled  to  possess  her  soul  in 
patience  for  several  months. 

The  same  dilatory  methods  were  employed  in  regard 
to  Anjou.  It  was  in  vain  that  he  represented  to  the 
King  the  advantages  of  his  Flemish  enterprise  ;  that  it 
was  for  the  honour  and  aggrandisement  of  France  ;  that 
it  was  a  sure  means  of  preventing  a  renewal  of  the  civil 
war,  "  since  all  such  unquiet  spirits  as  were  desirous  of 
change  would  have  an  opportunity  of  going  to  Flanders, 
to  let  off  their  steam  and  quench  their  thirst  for  war," 
whilst  the  expedition  would  provide  the  French  nobility 
with  as  valuable  a  military  experience  as  they  had  formerly 
found  in  Piedmont.  Henri  III.  had  no  mind  to  lend 

230 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

himself  to  the  aggrandisement  of  his  brother,  whom  he 
cordially  hated,  and  though  he  did  not  formally  forbid 
the  expedition,  he  threw  every  possible  obstacle  in  its 
way. 

The  sword  of  Viteaux  had  cut  short  the  ascendency 
of  Du  Guast ;  but  Maugiron,1  his  successor  in  the  King's 
favour,  was  no  less  presumptuous,  insolent,  and  quarrel- 
some, and  did  everything  possible  to  incite  Henri  against 
those  whom  he  feared  might  be  inclined  to  dispute  his 
influence.  This  Maugiron  had  formerly  been  in  Anjou's 
service,  which  he  had  deserted  for  that  of  the  King,  and 
hated  his  old  master  with  all  the  bitterness  of  a  renegade. 
In  alliance  with  his  fellow  mignons,  Quelus,  Gramont, 
Saint-Mesgrin,  Livarot,  Saint-Luc,  and  the  rest,  and 
with  the  tacit  approval  of  the  King,  he  persecuted  the 
duke  and  his  followers  with  the  utmost  rancour,  and 
"  subjected  them  to  a  thousand  insults."  Bussy,  as 
Monsieur's  chief  champion,  was  perpetually  having 
quarrels  thrust  upon  him,  and  would  appear  to  have  spent 
the  greater  part  of  his  time  in  giving  and  receiving 
challenges  to  mortal  combat.  It  must,  however,  be 
admitted  that  the  valiant  Bussy  was  only  too  ready  to 
measure  swords  with  the  royal  mignons,  and,  by  the  con- 
tempt which  he  openly  manifested  for  them,  did  not  a 
little  towards  provoking  breaches  of  the  peace. 

"  On  Tuesday,  January  10,"  writes  L'Estoile,  "  Bussy  ? 
who,  on  the  preceding  Tuesday,  had  quarrelled  with  the 
Seigneur  de  Gramont,  sent  to  the  Porte  Saint-Antoine 
three  hundred  gentlemen  well-armed  and  mounted) 
and  the  Seigneur  de  Gramont  as  many  friends  and  parti- 
sans of  the  King,  to  fight  there  and  decide  their  quarrel 

1  Louis  de  Maugiron,  son  of  Laurent  de  Maugiron,  Baron  d'Ampuis, 
Lieutenant-General  of  Dauphine. 

231 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

a-toute-outrance.  . .  .But  they  were  prevented  from  fighting 
that  morning,  by  order  of  the  King ;  notwithstanding 
which,  in  the  afternoon,  Gramont,  who  declared  himself 
insulted,  went,  with  a  considerable  following,  to  seek 
Bussy  at  his  lodging,  which  was  in  the  Rue  des  Prouvaires, 
into  which  he  forced  an  entrance,  and,  for  some  time,  a 
combat  was  waged  between  those  within  and  those 
without.  His  Majesty,  having  been  advised  of  this, 
despatched  thither  the  Marechal  de  Cosse  and  Captain 
Strozzi,  Colonel-General  of  the  French  infantry,  with 
their  guards,  who  conducted  Bussy  to  the  Louvre,  to 
which,  soon  afterwards,  the  Seigneur  de  Gramont  was  also 
brought,  and  where  they  were  retained  each  in  a  separate 
room.  Next  morning,  they  were  reconciled,  by  the  advice 
of  the  Marechaux  de  Montmorency  and  de  Cosse,  in 
whose  charge  the  King  had  placed  them,  instead  of  being 
brought  to  trial,  which  would  have  been  the  proper  course 
to  take,  if  justice  had  reigned  in  France  and  at  the 
Court." 

The  chronicler  goes  on  to  tell  us  that,  the  same  day, 
his  Majesty  profited  by  the  occasion  to  deliver  to  the 
courtiers  assembled  at  his  lever,  "  a  fine  and  grave 
remonstrance,  touching  the  quarrels  which  daily  took 
place  amongst  them,  even  in  his  palace  and  near  his 
person  (a  capital  offence,  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
realm),  for  the  most  trifling  reasons,  and  even  for  nothing 
at  all,  and  announced  that,  to  obviate  this  scandal,  he 
had  promulgated  certain  Ordinances,  which  dealt  very 
stringently  with  such  brawlers." 

The  Ordinances,  however,  seemed  to  have  troubled 
the  mignons  very  little  ;  for,  soon  afterwards,  we  hear  of 
another  affray,  near  the  Porte  Saint-Honore,  in  which 
Quelus  and  several  of  his  friends  attacked  Bussy,  who  was 

232 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

on  horseback  and  accompanied  only  by  one  gentleman. 
According  to  L'Estoile,  blows  were  exchanged,  and 
Bussy's  companion  severely  wounded ;  but  Brantome 
states  that  Bussy  did  not  stop  to  meet  his  antagonists, 
but  galloped  off  and  "  wrote  a  very  fine  letter  to  the 
King."  Anyway,  he  demanded  permission  to  fight  a 
formal  duel  with  Quelus ;  but  this  favour  was  refused 
him,  and,  though  the  Council  decided  that  Quelus,  "  as 
the  aggressor,  should  be  made  prisoner  and  brought  to 
trial,"  no  steps  were  taken  against  him. 

"  My  brother,"  writes  Marguerite,  "  being  of  opinion 
that  these  incidents  were  not  calculated  to  accelerate 
his  expedition  to  Flanders,  and  being  desirous  of  mol- 
lifying the  King  rather  than  of  irritating  him,  and 
reflecting  also  that,  if  Bussy  were  away  from  Court,  he 
might  the  better  advance  the  training  of  the  troops  he 
required,  despatched  him  to  his  estates.  But  Bussy's 
departure  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  persecution,  and  it 
was  evident  that,  although  his  fine  qualities  had  inspired 
Maugiron  and  the  other  young  men  with  a  good  deal 
of  jealousy,  the  principal  cause  of  their  hatred  of  him 
arose  from  the  fact  that  he  was  in  my  brother's  service. 
For,  after  he  had  gone,  they  continued  to  defy  and  annoy 
him  (Anjou)  with  so  much  insolence,  and  so  openly, 
that  every  one  perceived  it." 

Marguerite  assures  us  that,  for  a  time,  Anjou  bore 
these  attacks  with  exemplary  patience,  "  being  resolved 
to  submit  to  anything,  if  thereby  he  could  promote  his 
Flemish  enterprise  ;  but,  at  length,  matters  reached  a 
climax.  On  February  9,  1578,  the  King's  favourite, 
Saint-Luc,  was  married  with  great  eclat  to  Jeanne  de 
Cosse-Brissac,  daughter  of  the  Marechal  de  Cosse, 
"  ugly,  hump-backed  and  crooked,"  and  still  worse, 

233 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

according  to  L'Estoile.  But  Monsieur  and  the  Queen 
of  Navarre  decided  not  to  attend  the  ceremony,  and  went 
with  the  Queen-Mother  to  dine  at  Saint-Maur.  However, 
in  the  evening,  the  duke  consented  to  appear  at  the  ball 
wherewith  the  day's  festivities  concluded,  Catherine 
having  represented  to  him  that  his  absence  would  be 
certain  to  displease  the  King.  But  no  sooner  did  he 
enter  the  ball-room,  than  the  mignons  who  evidently 
regarded  his  refusal  to  grace  the  wedding-ceremony  with 
his  presence  as  a  personal  affront  to  their  comrade  and 
themselves,  "  began  taunting  him  with  such  cutting  words 
that  any  one,  even  of  lesser  degree  than  himself,  would 
have  been  offended  at  them,  telling  him  that  he  might 
have  spared  himself  the  trouble  of  changing  his  dress,  and 
twitting  him  with  his  ugliness  and  meanness  of  stature."  * 

Boiling  with  indignation,  Anjou  retired,  and,  after 
taking  counsel  with  his  confidant,  the  Marquis  de  la 
Chatre,  decided  to  go  into  the  country  for  a  few  days' 
hunting,  "  believing  that  his  absence  would  diminish 
the  animosity  of  these  youths  against  him,  and  thus 
facilitate  his  business  with  the  King,  relative  to  the 
Flemish  enterprise."  He  then  went  to  find  the  Queen- 
Mother,  and  informed  her  of  what  had  occurred  at  the 
ball,  and  of  the  resolution  at  which  he  had  arrived. 

Catherine  expressed  herself  much  annoyed  at  the  treat- 
ment to  which  the  prince  had  been  subjected,  approved 
of  his  decision  to  leave  the  Court  for  a  time,  and  promised 
to  obtain  leave  of  absence  for  him  from  the  King,  adding 
that,  while  he  was  away,  she  would  do  everything  in 
her  power  to  further  his  expedition  to  Flanders.  She 
then  sent  Villequier2  to  Henri  III.  to  obtain  the  required 

1  Memoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valo'u  (edit.  Guessard). 

2  Rene    de   Villequier,    Baron    de    Clairvaux,  one  of  the   worst  of 
Henri  III.'s  unworthy  favourites.     During  the  preceding  year,  while  the 

234 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

permission,  and  Anjou,  looking  upon  his  conge  as  already 
granted,  returned  to  his  apartments,  and  having  given 
orders  to  his  servants  to  make  the  necessary  preparations 
for  his  departure  on  the  morrow,  went  to  bed,  little 
imagining  the  storm  which  was  brewing. 

Villequier,  meanwhile,  had  gone  to  the  King  with  the 
Queen-Mother's  message.  Henri  III.,  at  first,  raised 
no  objection,  but,  having  retired  to  his  cabinet,  "  with 
a  Jeroboam's  council  of  some  five  or  six  young  men," 
he  was  induced  to  believe  that  Monsieur's  desire  to  with- 
draw for  a  time  from  Court  was  highly  suspicious,  and 
that  it  would  be  advisable  to  have  him  arrested  im- 
mediately. Throwing  on  a  dressing-gown,  and  summon- 
ing the  Sieur  de  Losse,  Captain  of  his  Scottish  Guard, 
and  some  archers  to  accompany  him,  the  King  hurried 
to  Catherine's  apartments,  "  in  a  state  of  the  utmost 
agitation,  as  though  there  were  some  public  panic,  or 
the  enemy  had  been  at  the  gate,  exclaiming  :  '  How, 
Madame,  could  you  think  of  asking  me  to  sanction  my 
brother's  departure  ?  Do  you  not  perceive,  were  he 
to  go,  the  peril  to  which  you  expose  my  realm  ?  Doubt- 
less, this  pretext  of  hunting  is  but  the  cover  for  some 
dangerous  design.  I  am  going  to  arrest  him  and  all  his 
people,  and  I  shall  cause  his  coffers  to  be  searched.  I 
feel  that  we  shall  make  some  discovery  of  importance.' ' 

Catherine,  fearing  that,  in  his  state  of  frenzied  excite- 
ment, the  King  might  really  attempt  some  act  of 
violence  against  his  brother,  declared  her  intention  of 
accompanying  him,  and  "  wrapping  herself,  as  best  she 
could,  in  her  manteau  de  nuit"  followed  him  to  Anjou's 

Court  was  at  Poitiers,  he  had  murdered  his  wife  in  a  fit  of  jealousy ;  but, 
as  the  King  bore  the  unfortunate  lady  a  grudge,  the  crime  remained 
unpunished  and  the  murderer  still  in  favour. 

235 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

apartments,  at  the  door  of  which  his  Majesty  began  knock- 
ing violently,  crying  out  that  it  was  the  King  who  stood 
without,  and  demanding  instant  admission. 

"  My  brother,'*  writes  Marguerite,  "  woke  up  with  a 
start,  and  knowing  that  he  had  done  nothing  which 
need  give  him  cause  for  alarm,  told  Cange,  his  valet- 
de-ckambre,  to  open  the  door.  The  King,  entering  in 
his  fury,  began  upbraiding  him,  declaring  that  he  would 
never  cease  plotting  against  his  realm,  and  that  he  would 
teach  him  what  it  meant  to  conspire  against  his  King. 
Thereupon,  he  ordered  the  archers  to  carry  off  his  coffers, 
and  to  drag  his  lackeys  out  of  the  room.  He  himself 
searched  my  brother's  bed,  to  see  if  he  could  discover  any 
papers  there.  My  brother,  having  a  letter  from  Madame 
de  Sauve,  which  he  had  received  that  very  evening,  held 
it  in  his  hand  to  prevent  it  being  seen.  The  King  insisted 
on  taking  it  from  him.  My  brother  resisted  and  implored 
him,  with  clasped  hands,  not  to  look  at  it,  which  made  the 
King  all  the  more  anxious  to  get  possession  of  it,  believing 
that  it  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  bring  my  brother  to 
trial.  At  last,  the  King  having  opened  it,  in  the  presence 
of  the  Queen  my  mother,  they  were  as  much  embarrassed 
as  was  Cato,  who,  having  compelled  Caesar,  in  the  Senate, 
to  show  the  paper  which  had  been  brought  to  him,  and 
which,  he  declared,  was  something  affecting  the  welfare 
of  the  Republic,  it  proved  to  be  a  love-letter,  which 
Cato's  own  sister  had  addressed  to  him.  The  shame 
of  this  misapprehension  increased  rather  than  abated 
the  King's  wrath,  and,  refusing  to  listen  to  my  brother, 
who  kept  on  demanding  of  what  he  was  accused  and 
why  he  was  being  treated  thus,  he  committed  him  to  the 
keeping  of  M.  de  Losse  and  the  Scots,  ordering  them 
not  to  allow  him  to  speak  to  any  one." 

236 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

When  his  infuriated  brother  and  Catherine  had  taken 
their  departure,  Monsieur  inquired  of  Losse,  "  whose 
eyes  were  filled  with  tears  at  seeing  matters  brought  to 
such  a  pass,"  what  had  happened  to  the  Queen  of  Navarre, 
and,  on  being  assured  that  she  was  still  at  liberty,  ex- 
pressed himself  greatly  relieved,  and  sent  Losse  to  beg 
the  Queen-Mother  to  obtain  the  King's  permission  for 
his  sister  to  share  his  captivity.  This  was  granted,  and 
the  princess,  informed  by  one  of  the  Scots  of  what  had 
occurred,  hastily  dressed  and  repaired  to  Anjou's  apart- 
ments. Although  it  was  scarcely  yet  day,  news  of 
Monsieur's  arrest  had  already  spread,  and  the  courtyard 
of  the  Louvre  was  thronged  with  people,  "  who,"  says 
Marguerite,  "  were  generally  eager  to  see  me  and  do 
me  honour,  but  now,  perceiving  that  Fortune  had  turned 
her  face  from  me,  like  the  courtiers  that  they  were, 
pretended  not  to  see  me." 

Anjou  seems  to  have  been  in  great  fear,  "  lest  his 
enemies,  unable  to  compass  his  death,  should  cause  him 
to  languish  in  the  solitude  of  a  long  captivity."  But, 
in  the  course  of  the  next  day,  the  elder  members  of  the 
Council,  "  who  were  all  extremely  scandalised  at  the 
bad  advice  that  the  King  had  received,"  addressed 
a  vigorous  remonstrance  to  his  Majesty,  who,  having 
by  this  time  recovered  his  senses,  took  it  in  good 
part,  and  begged  the  Queen-Mother  to  smooth  over 
matters,  and  "  arrange  that  my  brother  should  forget  all 
that  had  occurred."  Catherine,  accordingly,  proceeded 
to  Monsieur's  apartments  and  "  told  him  that  he  ought 
to  praise  God  for  the  mercy  he  had  shown  him  in  deliver- 
ing him  from  so  great  a  peril,  since  there  had  been 
moments  when  she  had  scarcely  dared  to  hope  for  his 
life ;"  and  entreated  him  to  do  everything  in  his  power 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

to  convince  the  King  of  his  loyalty  and  his  zeal  for  his 
service.  The  prince  was  then  set  at  liberty,  and  a  formal 
reconciliation  took  place  between  the  brothers,  in  the 
King's  cabinet  and  in  the  presence  of  the  principal 
personages  of  the  Court ;  after  which,  Bussy,  who  had 
returned  to  the  Louvre  to  visit  his  master  the  previous 
evening,  and  had  been  promptly  arrested,  was  sent  for, 
together  with  Quelus,  and  the  two  enemies  ordered  to 
embrace  one  another,  "  in  order  that  no  bone  of  conten- 
tion should  remain  to  occasion  further  quarrels." 

But  the  wound — to  borrow  Marguerite's  expression — 
was  only  fomented  externally  and  not  really  healed  ; 
and  the  mignons  had  little  difficulty  in  persuading  the 
King  that  his  brother  would  never  forget  the  indignity 
to  which  he  had  been  subjected,  and  would  be  certain 
to  seek  to  avenge  it.  This  idea  so  obsessed  the  sus- 
picious monarch,  that,  though  he  did  not  venture  to 
have  Monsieur  rearrested,  he  caused  him  to  be  kept 
under  the  closest  surveillance,  forbade  him  to  leave  the 
Louvre,  and  gave  orders  that  all  his  attendants  should 
be  turned  out  of  the  palace  every  night,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  those  who  usually  slept  in  his  bedchamber  or 
in  his  closet. 

Exasperated  beyond  endurance  by  these  renewed 
mortifications,  Anjou  resolved  to  effect  his  escape  and 
withdraw  to  his  estates,  until  the  preparations  for  his 
Flemish  expedition  were  completed.  He  communicated 
his  intention  to  his  devoted  ally  Marguerite,  who, 
"  seeing  that  therein  lay  his  only  hope  of  safety,  and  that 
neither  the  King  nor  the  realm  would  suffer  any  preju- 
dice in  consequence,"  readily  promised  him  her  aid. 

The  project,  however,  presented  serious  difficulties. 
To  endeavour  to  escape  by  day  was  out  of  the  question, 

'238 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

for  the  gates  were  carefully  guarded,  and  Monsieur 
was  surrounded  by  spies ;  while  by  night,  the  Louvre, 
with  its  draw-bridges  and  its  moats,  was  a  feudal  fortress, 
which  it  was  as  difficult  to  leave  as  to  enter.  But  Mar- 
guerite's ingenuity  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  Her 
apartments  were  situated  in  close  proximity  to  those 
of  her  brother,  and,  as  Anjou  was  permitted  to  move 
freely  about  the  interior  of  the  palace,  and  to  visit  his 
sister  whenever  he  pleased,  it  was  decided  that  he  should 
escape  by  the  window  of  the  Queen's  bedchamber,  which 
was  in  the  North-East  quarter  of  the  Louvre,  on  the 
second  storey,  overlooking  the  moat. 

But  for  this  a  long  and  stout  rope  was  required,  an 
article  which  could  not  be  procured  in  the  palace  without 
suspicion  being  aroused.  Marguerite,  thereupon,  des- 
patched a  page,  upon  whose  discretion  and  fidelity  she 
could  rely,  into  the  town,  with  a  lute-box  which  required 
mending.  When  he  returned,  a  few  hours  later,  a  rope 
had  been  substituted  for  the  instrument. 

February  14,  the  day  decided  on  for  the  duke's  escape, 
was  a  fast-day,  the  first  Friday  in  Lent,  and,  as  the  King 
did  not  sup  au  grand  convert,  Marguerite  supped  with 
the  Queen-Mother  in  the  latter's  apartments  As  they 
were  on  the  point  of  rising  from  table,  Anjou  entered, 
and,  impatient  to  regain  his  freedom,  whispered  to  his 
sister  to  return  as  soon  as  possible  to  her  apartments, 
where  he  would  be  awaiting  her.  Matignon,  "  a  danger- 
ous and  cunning  Norman,"  l  who  happened  to  be  present? 
and  had  either  got  wind  of  what  was  intended,  or  else 
suspected  it  from  the  manner  in  which  Monsieur  had 
spoken  to  the  princess,  stopped  the  Queen-Mother,  as 
she  was  leaving  the  room,  and  told  her  that  "  it  was 

1  Odet  de  Matignon,  Comte  de  Thorigny,  see  pp.  133  and  140  supra. 

239 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

evident  that  my  brother  intended  to  make  off  ;  that 
by  the  morrow  he  would  be  gone,  and  that  she  ought 
to  prevent  it." 

1  Catherine,  obviously  much  disturbed  by  Matignon's 
words,  told  her  daughter  to  follow  her  into  her  bed- 
chamber, and,  turning  to  her,  said  :  "  Are  you  aware 
of  what  Matignon  told  me  ?  "  Marguerite  replied  that 
she  had  not  heard  what  was  said,  but  had  perceived 
that  it  was  something  which  had  pained  her  mother. 
"  Yes,"  rejoined  Catherine,  "  it  pained  me  very  much, 
for  you  know  that  I  have  pledged  my  word  to  the  King 
that  your  brother  should  not  depart,  and  Matignon  told 
me  that  he  is  well  aware  that  he  will  not  be  here  to- 
morrow." 

Marguerite  tells  us  that  she  "  found  herself  in  a  double 
dilemma,  since  she  would  either  have  to  break  faith  with 
her  brother  and  place  his  life  in  jeopardy,  or  swear  against 
the  truth  (a  thing  which  she  would  not  have  done  to 
escape  a  thousand  deaths)."  Eventually,  she  took 
'refuge  in  a  subterfuge,  which  completely  satisfied  her 
somewhat  elastic  conscience,  and  which  she  appears  to 
have  regarded  as  a  direct  inspiration  of  the  Almighty, 
although  it  is  rather  doubtful  whether  any  of  her  readers 
will  agree  with  her  on  this  point.  "  I  composed  my 
countenance  and  my  speech,"  she  continues,  "  in  such 
wise  that  she  [the  Queen-Mother]  could  ascertain  nothing 
but  what  I  chose,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  I  neither 
offended  my  soul  nor  my  conscience  by  the  taking  of 
any  false  oath.  I  then  inquired  of  her  whether  she  were 
not  aware  of  the  hatred  which  M.  de  Matignon  bore 
my  brother,  and  said  that  he  was  a  malicious  mischief- 
maker,  who  was  annoyed  at  seeing  us  all  agreed  ;  thatj 
if  my  brother  should  depart,  I  would  forfeit  my  life  • 

240 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  that,  since  he  had  never  concealed  anything  from 
me,  he  would  have  informed  me,  if  he  had  any  such 
design.  This  I  said,  being  well  assured  that,  once  my 
brother  was  in  safety,  no  one  would  dare  to  injure  me, 
while,  if  the  worst  happened,  I  infinitely  preferred  to 
pledge  my  life  than  to  offend  my  soul  by  taking  a  false 
oath." 

Catherine,  without  seeking  to  probe  the  meaning  of 
her  daughter's  words,  said  to  her  :  "  Consider  what  you 
are  saying ;  you  will  be  my  surety  for  it ;  and  will 
answer  to  me  for  it  with  your  life." 

The  princess  smilingly  assured  her  that  that  was  what 
she  meant,  and,  bidding  her  good-night,  repaired  to  her 
own  apartments,  where  she  hurriedly  undressed  and  got 
into  bed,  in  order  to  be  able  to  dismiss  her  ladies  and 
maids-of-honour,  none  of  whom  she  had  admitted  to 
her  confidence.  As  soon  as  she  found  herself  alone,  save 
for  three  waiting-women,  whom  she  could  implicitly 
trust,  and  the  page  who  had  brought  the  rope,  Anjou 
entered,  accompanied  by  his  confidant,  Simier,  who 
had  aided  him  in  his  previous  escape,  in  1575,  and  his 
faithful  valet-de-chambre,  Cange. 

Then  began  this  adventure,  which  recalls  to  mind 
the  escape  of  the  Due  de  Beaufort,  the  famous  "  Roi 
des  Halles"  from  Vincennes,  seventy  years  later. 
"  Nothing,"  remarks  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  "  depicts  more 
vividly  the  disorder  of  this  Court  than  this  strange, 
nocturnal  escape,  which  takes  place  at  the  Louvre  itself, 
within  two  paces  of  the  King.  What  a  characteristic 
tableau  !  It  is  the  first  Prince  of  the  Blood,  heir-pre- 
sumptive to  the  throne,  who  escapes  through  a  window, 
at  the  risk  of  breaking  his  neck,  or  of  being  arrested 
as  a  malefactor  ;  it  is  a  Daughter  of  France,  Queen  of 

241  Q 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Navarre,  who  furnishes  him  with  the  means  for  this 
flight,  superintends  this  liberation  in  her  own  chamber, 
procures  the  instruments  for  it,  and  adjusts  them  with 
her  own  fair  and  royal  hands !  "  l 

But  let  us  allow  Marguerite   to  give  her  own  account 
of  the  adventure. 

"  I  then  rose  ;  we  adjusted  the  rope  by  means  of  a 
stick,  and,  after  we  had  looked  into  the  moat,  to  see  if 
there  was  any  one  there,  with  the  assistance  only  of 
three  of  my  women,  who  slept  in  my  room,  and  of  the 
boy  who  had  brought  the  rope,  we  let  down,  first,  my 
brother,  who  laughed  and  jested  without  being  in  the 
least  afraid,  although  the  height  was  very  great ;  next, 
Simier,  who,  pale  and  trembling,  could  scarcely  hold 
on  through  fear,  and  then  Cange,  my  brother's  valet- 
de-chambre.  God  directed  my  brother  so  happily, 
that,  without  being  discovered,  he  reached  Sainte- 
Genevieve,  where  Bussy  was  awaiting  him,  who,  with  the 
consent  of  the  abbe,2  had  made  a  hole  in  the  town 
wall.3  Through  this  he  passed,  and  finding  horses  in 
readiness,  gained  Angers  without  any  mishap. 

"  Just  as  we  were  letting  down  Cange,  who  was  the 
last  to  descend,  a  man  rose  up  from  the  bottom  of  the 
moat,  and  set  off  running  towards  the  apartment  which 
adjoins  the  tennis-court,  which  is  the  way  leading  to  the 
guard-room.  I,  who,  in  the  midst  of  all  this  danger, 
had  never  apprehended  anything  which  concerned 
myself,  but  only  the  safety  or  peril  of  my  brother,  was 

1  Marguerite  de  Valois,  Reine  de  France  et  de  Navarre,  i.  527. 

2  Joseph  Foulon.  He  took  a  very  active  part,  on  behalf  of  the  League, 
at  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Paris.     At  this  time,  he   was  devoted  to 
Montieur's  interests. 

1  The  Abbey  of  Sainte-Genevieve,  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Seine,  was  built  against  the  city  walls. 

242 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

half-senseless  with  fear,  supposing  that  this  was  some 
one  who,  in  accordance  with  M.  de  Matignon's  warning, 
had  been  placed  there  to  watch  us." 

The  waiting-women  were  as  terrified  as  their  mistress, 
and,  seizing  the  tell-tale  rope,  threw  it  into  the  fire. 
This  rope,  however,  which  happened  to  be  a  very  long 
one,  made  such  a  blaze  that  the  chimney  caught  fire, 
and  the  archers  of  the  guard  came  knocking  at  the  door, 
telling  Marguerite's  women  to  let  them  in,  in  order  to 
extinguish  the  flames.  The  women,  however,  induced 
them  to  go  away,  saying  that  their  mistress  was  asleep, 
and  assuring  them  that  they  were  quite  able  to  put  out 
the  fire  without  their  help  This  they  succeeded  in 
doing ;  but,  two  hours  later,  Losse,  the  Captain  of  the 
Scottish  Guard,  arrived  to  conduct  Marguerite  to  the 
King  and  Queen-Mother.  Their  Majesties,  it  appeared, 
had  already  been  informed  of  Monsieur's  escape  by  the 
Abbe  of  Sainte-Genevieve,  who,  in  order  not  to  become 
compromised  in  the  affair,  had,  with  Anjou's  consent, 
carried  the  news  to  the  Louvre,  so  soon  as  he  judged 
the  duke  to  be  beyond  reach  of  pursuit,  declaring  that 
Monsieur  had  arrived  at  the  abbey  unexpectedly,  and  had 
caused  him  to  be  detained  as  a  prisoner, while  his  followers 
made  a  hole  through  the  wall. 

The  King  was,  of  course,  in  a  towering  passion,  and 
both  he  and  Catherine  accused  Marguerite  of  having 
deceived  them,  and  connived  at  her  brother's  escape. 
The  princess  protested  her  innocence,  declared  that 
Anjou  had  deceived  her,  as  he  had  them,  and  announced 
her  willingness  to  answer  to  them  with  her  life  that  his 
departure  would  not  result  in  any  deviation  from  his 
allegiance,  and  that  he  was  only  going  to  his  estates  to 
conclude  his  preparations  for  his  expedition  to  Flanders. 

243 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Henri  III.,  although  well  aware  that  he  had  been  tricked, 
pretended  to  believe  his  sister,  not  daring,  as  Marguerite 
had  foreseen,  to  complicate  matters  by  taking  any  steps 
against  her,  now  that  Anjou  was  at  large  again  ;  and 
the  princess  returned  to  her  apartments  very  well  satisfied 
with  her  night's  work.  "•--'-' 

Next  day,  Catherine  started  for  Angers  to  endeavour 
to  induce  the  fugitive  to  return  ;  but  this  time  the 
great  negotiator  did  not  meet  with  any  success ;  and  all 
she  brought  back  with  her  was  a  letter  from  Monsieur 
to  the  King,  in  which  the  duke  informed  his  brother 
that  his  desire  to  be  at  liberty  and  the  ill-treatment  he 
had  received  at  Court  had  been  the  only  reasons  which 
had  determined  him  to  retire  to  his  government,  and 
that  he  had  no  intention  of  disturbing  the  kingdom. 

With  which  assurance  his  Majesty  was  fain  to  be 
content. 


244 


CHAPTER   XVII 

Catherine  decides  to  accompany  her  daughter  to  Gascony  to 
rejoin  the  King  of  Navarre — Marguerite  receives  her  dowry 
in  lands — Efforts  of  Henri  III.  to  conciliate  his  sister — De- 
parture of  the  Queen-Mother  and  the  Queen  of  Navarre  for 
the  South — Their  suite — Marguerite's  entry  into  Bordeaux — 
Meeting  with  Henri  of  Navarre  at  Casteras — "A  little  war  of 
ogling " — Marguerite's  reception  at  Agen,  Toulouse,  and 
Auch — Incident  of  La  Reole  and  Fleurance — The  Queen  of 
Navarre  enters  Nerac,  where  politics  are  temporarily  super- 
seded by  love — Influence  exercised  by  Marguerite  at  the 
Treaty  of  Nerac — Catherine  returns  to  Paris. 

THE  flight  of  Monsieur  deprived  Marguerite  of  her  chief 
support  at  the  Court ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  removed 
a  subject  of  continual  anxiety  to  her  ;  for,  in  point  of 
fact,  she  had  given  far  more  assistance  to  her  brother 
than  she  had  received  from  the  duke,  who  was  naturally 
inconstant,  restless,  and  feeble,  and  "  perpetually  playing 
the  fool,"  to  borrow  Catherine's  expression. 

Nevertheless,  after  his  departure,  she  was  more  than 
ever  anxious  to  quit  the  Court,  and  "  continued  to 
importune  the  King  at  all  hours  to  allow  her  to  rejoin 
her  husband."  This  request  Henri  III.  was  no  longer 
in  a  position  to  refuse,  as  he  was  just  then  particularly 
desirous  not  to  irritate  the  King  of  Navarre,  who  was 
making  strong  representations  to  the  Government  in 
regard  to  the  grievances  of  the  Protestants,  and  was 
not  less  importunate  in  protesting  against  the  sequestra- 

245 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

tion  of  his  estates  in  the  North  and  centre  of  France.  It 
was,  therefore,  arranged  that  Marguerite  should  start 
for  Gascony,  so  soon  as  the  Queen-Mother — who,  osten- 
sibly to  settle  her  son-in-law's  claims  and  the  points 
still  in  dispute,  but  really  in  order  to  endeavour  to  sow 
dissension  between  the  King  of  Navarre  and  his  most 
influential  followers,  had  decided  to  accompany  her 
daughter — could  leave  Paris. 

In  the  meantime,  the  King,  "  not  wishing  her  to  depart 
bearing  him  ill-will,  and  likewise,  desiring,  above  all 
things,  to  divert  her  from  her  affection  for  her  brother,  en- 
deavoured to  conciliate  her  by  every  kind  of  benefit  .  .  . 
and  took  the  trouble  to  visit  her  every  morning,  and  to 
point  out  how  advantageous  his  friendship  was  to  her, 
whilst  that  of  her  brother  would,  in  the  end,  bring  about 
her  destruction,  with  a  thousand  other  arguments  to 
the  same  effect." 

Marguerite  was  not  to  be  persuaded  to  renounce  her 
allegiance  to  Anjou,  but  she  took  advantage  of  this 
sudden  change  in  his  Majesty's  disposition  towards  her 
to  exact  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  made  her  at  the 
time  of  the  "  Peace  of  Monsieur"  and  renewed  on  her 
return  from  Flanders,  to  assign  her  her  dower  in  lands ; 
and  received  the  sentchaussees  of  Quercy  and  the  Agenais, 
the  more  important  to  her,  inasmuch  as  they  adjoined 
her  husband's  dominions,  the  royal  domains  of  Con- 
domois,  Auvergne,  and  Rouergue,  and  the  lordships  of 
Rieux,  Alby,  and  Verdun-sur-Garonne.  This  rich  appan- 
age, which  was  conceded  by  letters  patent  dated  March 
1 8,  1578,  made  the  young  Queen  of  Navarre  one  of  the 
wealthiest  and  most  powerful  landowners  in  France. 

Before  setting  out  for  Guienne,  Marguerite  accom- 
panied her  mother  to  Alenc/m  to  bid  farewell  to  Monsieur, 

246 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

who  was  on  the  point  of  starting  for  Flanders.  Then 
they  returned  to  the  capital  to  complete  their  prepara- 
tions for  their  own  journey,  the  expenses  of  which, 
L'Estoile  tells  us,  were  borne  by  the  clergy,  upon  whom 
the  King  levied  a  "  tenth,"  at  which,  adds  the  chronicler, 
"  they  all  murmured  loudly."  *  At  the  end  of  July, 
the  King  escorted  his  relatives  as  far  as  Olinville,  one  of 
his  favourite  country-seats,  where  they  remained  for 
a  few  days,  and,  on  August  2,  bade  his  Majesty  adieu, 
and  took  the  road  to  the  south. 

The  two  Queens  travelled  in  full  state,  and  Marguerite's 
suite  alone  numbered  close  upon  three  hundred  persons ; 2 
there  were  ladies-of-honour  and  maids-of-honour,  coun- 
cillors and  secretaries  ;  confessors  and  chaplains ;  physi- 
cians, surgeons,  and  apothecaries  ;  equerries  and  valets- 
de-chambre,  pages,  waiting-women,  and  lackeys  ;  musicians 
and  mar6chaux-des-logis  ;  cooks,  scullions,  and  laundresses; 
coachmen,  grooms,  postillions,  and  muleteers,  so  that  it 
is  small  wonder  that  his  Majesty  preferred  to  burden  the 
clergy,  rather  than  himself,  with  the  expenses  of  the 
journey.  Among  the  distinguished  persons  who  accom- 
panied them,  and  whose  attendants  helped  to  swell  the 
cortege  to  the  size  of  a  veritable  army,  were  the  Cardinal 
de  Bourbon,  the  Due  de  Montpensier,  and  his  son,  the 
Dauphin  of  Auvergne,  the  Prince  de  Conti,  Matignon, 
Brantome,  and  the  learned  Pibrac,3  of  whom  we  shall 
have  something  to  say  hereafter.  The  "  escadron  volant" 

1  Journal  de  Henri  7//.,July  1578. 

2  M.  Philippe   Lauzun,  Itineraire  raisonne  de  Marguerite  de  Valoii  en 
Gascogne,  d'apres  set  livrei  des  comptes. 

8  Gui  du  Faur,  Sieur  de  Pibrac.  He  had  gained  a  considerable 
reputation  as  an  orator  at  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  had  accompanied 
Henri  III.  to  Poland.  On  his  return  to  France,  he  was  made  President 
of  the  Parlement  of  Paris,  and  had  lately  been  nominated  Chancellor 

247 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

too — significant  fact ! — was  on  its  war  footing.  For  an 
advance-guard,  Catherine's  maids-of-honour,  Bazerne 
and  Dayelle,  a  beautiful  young  Greek,  who  had  escaped 
from  the  sack  of  Cyprus  in  1571,  the  Italian,  Anne 
d'Atri,  who  had  accompanied  Marguerite  to  Flanders, 
and  Mile,  de  Rebours  and  de  Fosseux,  maids-of-honour 
to  the  Queen  of  Navarre.  And  for  the  rear-guard,  the 
Duchesse  de  Montpensier,  and  the  Duchesse  d'Uzes, 
of  the  caustic  tongue,  whom  Catherine  called  "  her 
gossip,"  and  Marguerite  "  her  sibyl,"  and,  finally,  the 
too-celebrated  Madame  de  Sauve,  who,  although  she 
was  but  five-and-twenty,  had  achieved  so  many  con- 
quests that  she  must  have  seemed  almost  a  veteran  to 
the  young  girls  who  were  on  their  first  campaign.1 

The  royal  travellers  journeyed  by  easy  stages,  and, 
after  having  passed  through  Etampes,  and  Artenay, 
and  traversed  the  environs  of  Orleans,  they  made  a  short 
stay  at  the  Chateau  of  Chenonceaux.  From  there  they 
travelled,  by  way  of  Tours,  Azay-le-Rideau,  Chinon, 
Fontevrault,  Poitiers,  RufTec,  and  Cognac,  into  Guienne. 
It  was  Catherine's  policy  that  her  daughter  should 
be  received  en  souveraine  in  all  the  towns  of  her  husband's 
government,  and  Marguerite  had  a  magnificent  reception 
at  Bordeaux,  the  capital  of  the  province,  into  which  city 
she  made  her  entry  "  with  all  the  magnificence  that 
could  be  desired,  habited  in  an  orange  robe,  her  favourite 
colour,  covered  with  embroidery,  and  mounted  on  a 
white  horse."  8 

of  the  Queen   of  Navarre.     He  was  at  this  time  fifty-four  years  of 
age. 

1  La  Ferriere,  Trots  amoureuses  au  XVI. *  siMe  :  Marguerite  de  falois. 
D'Aubigne  says  that  Catherine  had   brought  Madame   de   Sauve   and 
Mile.  Dayelle  "  expressly  for  the  benefit  of  her  son-in-law." 

2  Brantome,  Dames  illustrei. 

248 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

After  a  stay  of  a  few  days,  the  two  Queens  left  Bor- 
deaux, on  October  I,  and  slept  the  night  at  Cadillac, 
and  the  one  following  at  Saint-Macaire.  Here  Pibrac, 
who  had  been  sent  on  in  advance  to  announce  their 
coming,  arrived  with  the  news  that  the  King  of  Navarre 
would  meet  them  at  Casteras,  half-way  between  Saint- 
Macaire  and  La  Reole,  "  a  town  which  was  still  held  by 
those  of  the  Religion,  by  reason  of  the  mistrust  which 
yet  possessed  them — the  disturbed  condition  of  the 
country  not  having  permitted  of  his  coming  any  further."1 

The  Queen  arrived  first  at  the  rendezvous,  and  entered 
the  chateau  to  await  the  King.  Henri  appeared,  an  hour 
later,  bravely  attended  by  a  suite  of  six  hundred  gentle- 
men, all  richly  dressed  and  well  mounted.  Followed  by 
the  Vicomte  de  Turenne  and  his  chief  nobles,  he  entered 
the  chateau,  saluted  Catherine  very  cordially,  kissed  his 
wife  on  both  cheeks,  and  overwhelmed  her  with  expres- 
sions of  joy  and  affection.  At  La  Reole,  to  which  the 
united  Courts  proceeded,  and  where  they  remained  for  a 
few  days,  Catherine  had  several  interviews  with  her  son- 
in-law,and  it  was  finally  arranged  that  a  special  commission 
should  be  appointed  to  enforce  the  concessions  granted 
to  the  Protestants  at  the  Peace  of  Bergerac,  and  that 
all  the  points  in  dispute  between  the  Huguenots  and 
Catholics  should  be  submitted  to  a  conference. 

In  the  meanwhile,  "  a  little  war  of  ogling  "  had  begun. 
Madame  de  Sauve  endeavoured  to  resume  her  empire 
over  her  royal  lover,  but  she  already  belonged  to  ancient 
history.  The  Bearnais  preferred  green  fruit,  and  his 
chief  attentions  were  bestowed  on  Mile.  Dayelle,  the 

1  Memolres  etlettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valo'u  (edit.  Guessard).  Le  Re"ole 
was  one  of  the  six  surety-towns  ceded  to  the  Huguenots  by  the  Peace 
of  Bergerac. 

249 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

beautiful  Cypriote.  On  her  side,  Mile.  d'Atri  found  a 
malicious  pleasure  in  rendering  d'Ussac,  the  old  governor 
of  La  Reole,  madly  enamoured  of  her.  The  King  of 
Navarre  and  his  younger  nobles  bantered  the  poor 
governor  unmercifully,  and  the  veteran,  wounded  to  the 
quick,  vowed  vengeance  on  his  ungrateful  chief,  and, 
some  months  later,  deserted  to  the  Royalist  side. 

At  Marmande,  the  two  Courts  parted  ;  the  King  of 
Navarre  setting  out  for  Nerac  to  make  arrangements 
for  the  proposed  conference,  while  Marguerite,  accom- 
panied by  her  mother,  went  to  take  possession  of  her 
appanage.  On  October  12,  she  arrived  at  Agen,  and 
made  a  magnificent  entry  into  the  town,  whither  all 
the  nobles  and  gentry  of  the  neighbourhood  flocked  to 
do  her  homage.  From  Agen,  they  set  out  for  Toulouse, 
being  met  at  the  Chateau  de  Lafox  by  Henri,  who  escorted 
them  as  far  as  Valence.  Their  official  entry  into  Toulouse 
took  place  on  October  26,  when  the  Queens,  who  were 
accompanied  by  the  Marechaux  d'Amville  and  de  Biron, 
and  a  number  of  nobles,  were  received  with  great  cere- 
mony by  the  municipality,  and  conducted  beneath 
triumphal  arches  and  through  streets  strewn  with 
flowers,  to  the  archbishop's  palace,  where  they  lodged. 

Soon  after  their  arrival  at  Toulouse,  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  fell  ill,  "  seized  with  a  violent  attack  of  fever," 
in  consequence  of  which  she  was  compelled  to  receive 
the  members  of  the  Parlement,  when  they  came  to 
present  her  with  their  address  of  welcome,  "  in  a  great 
bed  of  white  damask,"  and  was  unable  to  leave  the  city 
until  November  10.  Eager  to  expedite  the  meeting 
of  the  conference  decided  upon  by  her  and  Henri  of 
Navarre,  Catherine  had  already  set  out  for  Isle-Jourdain, 
the  rendezvous  arranged  between  them.  While  she  was 

250 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

at  Bordeaux,  Henri  had  sent  to  her,  proposing  that  the 
conference  should  be  held  at  Castel-Sarrazin,  on  the 
pretext  of  the  lack  of  suitable  accommodation  at  Isle- 
Jourdain,  but  really  because  he  wished  to  remain  in  a 
Huguenot  country.  The  Queen-Mother  curtly  replied 
that  she  should  hold  him  to  his  agreement ;  but,  though 
she  waited  a  week  at  Isle-Jourdain,  neither  the  King 
nor  any  Huguenot  deputies  appeared.  In  great  disgust, 
she  ended  by  consenting  to  the  conference  being  held 
at  Nerac,  and  proceeded  to  Auch,  into  which  town  she 
made  her  entry  on  November  20.  Marguerite  arrived 
the  following  day.  On  her  journey  from  Toulouse, 
she  had  stopped  for  a  night  at  the  Chateau  of  Pibrac, 
belonging  to  her  chancellor,  renowned  at  that  time  for 
its  sumptuous  furniture  and  decorations,  and  had  been 
magnificently  entertained  by  its  owner.  Without  as 
yet  daring  to  avow  his  feelings,  Pibrac,  like  so  many  others, 
had  already  succumbed  to  his  beautiful  mistress's  charms ; 
and  this  growing  passion  was  to  be  followed  by  very 
unfortunate  consequences. 

The  municipal  authorities  came  to  receive  Marguerite 
at  the  Porte  de  la  Trille.  The  young  Queen  was  in  a 
litter,  over  which  was  spread  a  black  velvet  pall  em- 
broidered with  her  Arms ;  trumpets  sounded,  cannon 
fired  salutes,  and  the  children  of  the  town  chanted  odes 
in  her  praise.  Two  days  later,  her  husband  arrived, 
and  was  also  received  with  great  ceremony,  as  the 
Comte  d'Armagnac,  and  handed  the  keys  of  the  town. 

It  was  while  the  King  of  Navarre  and  the  two  Queens 
were  at  Auch,  that  a  singular  incident  occurred.  The 
popular  version,  which,  we  observe,  is  accepted  by  Mr. 
P.  F.  Willert,  Henri's  latest  biographer,1  is  as  follows : 

1  "Henry  of  Navarre  and  the  Huguenots  in  France,"  p.  129 

251 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

The  evening  of  the  King's  arrival,  while  a  ball  was  in 
progress,  a  messenger  entered  to  inform  him  that  d'Ussac, 
the  Governor  of  La  Reole,  seduced  from  his  allegiance 
by  the  fascinating  Mile.  d'Atri,  and  infuriated  by  the 
banter  of  his  sovereign,  had  betrayed  the  town  to  the 
Royalists.  Henri's  first  impulse  on  learning  the  news 
was  to  retaliate  by  arresting  Biron  and  the  Catholic  chiefs 
who  had  accompanied  the  Queen-Mother  ;  but,  being 
advised  that  the  marshal  had  too  strong  a  following  to 
render  this  practicable  without  bloodshed,  he  slipped  from 
the  room,  called  some  of  his  most  trusty  followers  to- 
gether, and  before  morning  escaladed  Fleurance,  a  small 
town  between  Auch  and  Lectoure,  held  by  a  garrison  of 
French  troops.  Catherine,  when  she  heard  of  the  exploit 
only  laughed  :  "  It  is  his  revenge  for  La  Reole,"  said 
she,  "  cabbage  for  cabbage,  but  mine  has  the  better 
heart." 

The  truth,  however,  would  appear  to  be  somewhat 
less  picturesque.  D'Ussac,  as  we  have  mentioned  else- 
where, did  certainly  desert  the  Huguenot  for  the  Royalist 
side,  and  in  the  next  war  held  La  Reole  against  his  former 
friends,  "  to  the  prejudice  of  his  soul  and  his  honour."  l 
But  his  defection  did  not  take  place  until  some  months 
later.  The  chateau  and  town  of  La  Reole  were  not 
betrayed  by  him  to  the  Royalists,  but  were  seized  by 
the  townspeople,  who  rose  in  revolt,  owing  to  the  tyranny 
of  one  of  d'Ussac's  officers  named  Favas,  "  who  oppressed 
and  maltreated  them."  The  town  was  subsequently 
restored  to  the  King  of  Navarre  by  order  of  Henri  III. 

As  for  the  supposed  coup  de  main  at  Fleurance,  Cather- 
ine's correspondence  tells  us  what  really  occurred  there. 
Fleurance  was  an  Armagnac  town,  and  ought  to  have 

1  Me  moires  du  Due  de  Bouillon . 
252 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

admitted  the  King  of  Navarre,  as  Auch  had  done. 
But  when  he  appeared  and  demanded  the  keys,  the 
Catholic  inhabitants  refused  to  surrender  them,  flew 
to  arms,  and  occupied  the  towers  of  one  of  their  gates, 
from  which  they  fired  several  arquebus-shots  at  their 
ord  and  his  followers,  wounding  a  gentleman  of  Henri's 
suite.  However,  the  Queen-Mother  sent  orders  to 
them  to  evacuate  the  tower  and  admit  the  King,  which 
they  eventually  did.  * 

From  Auch,  the  two  Queens  proceeded  to  Condom, 
and,  on  December  15,  Marguerite  made  her  entry  into 
Nerac,  the  capital  of  the  duchy  of  Albret,  and  the 
residence  of  her  husband's  maternal  ancestors.  Here, 
the  two  Courts  remained  a  week,  which  was  devoted  to 
f£tes  and  amusements  of  all  kinds.  The  King's  troupe 
of  Italian  players  gave  several  performances,  and  Salluste, 
du  Bartas,  the  Ronsard  of  the  Huguenots,2  composed, 
in  the  Queen's  honour,  a  dialogue  in  three  languages, 
which  was  recited  by  three  damsels,  representing  the 
Gascon,  Latin  and  French  Muses.  As  was,  of  course, 
to  be  expected,  Marguerite  awarded  the  palm  to  the 
Gascon  Muse,  who  had  proclaimed  her  husband  "  leu 
plus  grand  rey  deu  moun"  and,  in  token  of  her  satisfaction, 
presented  the  young  lady — a  certain  Mile.  Sauvage — 
with  a  gauze  fichu  which  she  happened  to  be  wearing, 
and  which,  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  assures  us,  was  for  many 
years  cherished  as  a  precious  relic  by  the  descendants  of 
the  recipient. 

1  M.  Charles  Merki,  La  Relne  Margot  et  la  fn  du  Valois,  p.  212. 

2  Guillaume  Salluste  du    Bartas.     He   was  born  at  Montfort,  near 
Auch,  in  1544,  and  became  a  soldier  while  still  very  young.     He  was 
entrusted  by  the  King  of  Navarre  with  several  diplomatic  missions  to 
England,    Scotland   and    Denmark,    and    fell,  fighting  by  his  side,  at 
Ivry. 

253 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

At  Nerac,  politics  were  for  the  moment  relegated  to 
the  background,  and  love  reigned  supreme.  The  pretty 
girls  whom  the  two  Queens  had  brought  with  them 
turned  the  heads  of  all  the  Protestant  nobles,  so  much 
so  indeed  that  Marguerite  tells  us  that  there  were 
moments  when  her  mother  suspected  that  the  delays 
in  holding  the  conference  had  been  purposely  arranged 
by  these  enamoured  gentlemen,  "  to  the  end  that  they 
might  the  longer  enjoy  the  society  of  her  maids-of- 
honour."  Even  the  stern  Calvinist,  d'Aubigne,  and 
the  grave  statesman,  Rosny,1  caught  the  prevailing 
infection  ;  for  the  former  tells  us  that  they  were  "  all 
lovers  together,"  while  Sully  admits  that  he  also  became 
a  courtier  and  "  took  a  mistress  like  the  others."  It 
should  be  mentioned,  however,  that  the  Calvinist  nobles 
were,  after  all,  only  following  the  example  of  their  sove- 
reign, who  had  renewed  his  old  liaison  with  Madame 
de  Sauve,  and  whose  passion  for  Mile.  Dayelle 
had  reached  a  very  high  temperature.  "  But,"  writes 
his  complacent  consort,  "  this  did  not  prevent  the 
King  my  husband  from  showing  me  great  respect  and 
affection,  as  much,  indeed,  as  I  could  have  desired;  since 
he  informed  me,  upon  the  very  first  day  we  arrived,  of 
all  the  devices  that  had  been  invented,  while  he  was  at 
Court,  to  create  bad  feeling  between  us,  and  he  expressed 
great  satisfaction  at  our  reunion." 

Catherine  cut  short  these  intrigues  by  removing  with 
her  squadron  to  Porte-Sainte-Marie,  where  she  remained 
until  the  first  week  of  February  1579,  when  she  returned 
to  Nerac,  for  the  conference.  In  these  deliberations, 
Marguerite  took  a  prominent  part,  but  in  a  sense  very 
much  opposed  to  that  which  Catherine  had  expected  of 

1  Maximilien  de  Bethune,  afterwards  Due  de  Sully. 
254 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

her.  That  veteran  intriguer  had  brought  her  fairest 
auxiliaries  with  her,  in  the  confident  expectation  that 
her  susceptible  son-in-law  would  succumb  to  their 
charms,  and  thus  cause  an  estrangement  between  him 
and  his  wife,  by  which  she  could  not  fail  to  profit.  But 
Henri  and  Marguerite  seemed  to  have  agreed  upon  a 
policy  of  mutual  tolerance,  and  the  latter,  thoroughly 
well  acquainted  with  the  objects  and  methods  of  her 
mother,  was  able  to  give  her  husband  some  very  useful 
advice,  which  greatly  disconcerted  Catherine's  plans. 
She  also  did  not  scruple  to  make  use  of  her  influence  over 
Pibrac,  and  the  enamoured  lawyer  manceuvred  so  skil- 
fully that  the  Huguenots  obtained  more  favourable 
terms  than  they  had  dared  to  hope  for.  The  conference, 
after  some  pretty  sharp  recriminations/  ended  with  a 
promise  of  further  securities  to  the  Huguenots,  in  the 
shape  of  eight  additional  surety-towns,  and  of  the  com- 
plete redress  of  their  grievances ;  and,  towards  the  end 
of  March,  the  Queen-Mother  set  out  on  her  return  to 
Paris,  having  accomplished  very  little,  save  the  sowing 
of  a  few  seeds  of  discord  about  the  King  of  Navarre, 
and  the  beguiling  of  two  or  three  Catholic  nobles  from 
their  allegiance  to  him. 

Marguerite  and  her  husband  accompanied  Catherine 
as  far  as  Castelnaudary,  where  they  took  leave  of  her. 
The  parting  affected  his  Majesty  not  a  little  ;  for  the 
Queen-Mother  carried  away  with  her  the  fascinating 
Mile.  Dayelle. 

1  The  Huguenot  deputies  adopted  a  very  arrogant  and  bellicose  tone, 
and  Catherine  felt  obliged  to  address  them  "  royally  and  very  haughtily, 
even  going  so  far  as  to  declare  that  she  would  have  them  all  hanged  as 
rebels."  Upon  which  the  Queen  of  Navarre  intervened  and,  with  tears 
in  her  eyes,  implored  her  mother  to  give  them  peace. 

255 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

Mile,  de  Rebours  becomes  the  King  of  Navarre's  mistress — 
Difficulty  of  Marguerite's  position  at  Pau,  owing  to  the  pro- 
scription of  the  Catholic  religion — Incident  on  Whit-Sunday 
1579,  in  the  Queen's  private  chapel — Marguerite  nurses  her 
husband  during  an  illness  at  Eauze — Life  at  NeVac — Amours 
of  the  King — A  disappointed  lover's  revenge — Henri  III. 
writes  to  his  brother-in-law  to  warn  him  of  the  nature  of  his 
wife's  relations  with  the  Vicomte  de  Turenne — Anger  of 
Marguerite,  who  intrigues  to  bring  about  a  renewal  of 
hostilities — The  "  Lovers'  War  " — The  storming  of  Cahors— 
The  Marechal  de  Biron  blockades  Nerac — Marguerite  uses  her 
influence  to  end  the  war — Anjou  sent  to  Gascony  to  negotiate 
on  behalf  of  the  King — The  Treaty  of  Fleix. 

"  IT  is  the  best  menage  that  one  could  possibly  desire," 
wrote  Catherine  to  her  confidante,  the  Duchesse  d'Uzes, 
who  had  preceded  her  to  Paris;  and, indeed,  for  some  time 
after  their  reunion,  harmony  appeared  to  reign  between 
the  King  of  Navarre  and  his  wife.  On  taking  leave  of 
the  Queen-Mother,  the  royal  pair  spent  some  time  at 
Mazeres  and  Pamiers  ;  but  the  end  of  May  found  them 
installed  at  Pau,  in  the  chateau  in  which  Henri  had  been 
born. 

Mile.  Dayelle  having  followed  Catherine  to  Paris, 
the  King  turned  for  consolation  to  Mile,  de  Rebours,1 
"  a  malicious  girl,"  says  Marguerite,  "  who  disliked  me 
and  endeavoured  by  every  means  in  her  power  to  preju- 
dice me  in  his  eyes."  However,  it  was  not  on  account 

1  Daughter  of  Guillaume  de  Rebours,  President  of  the  Parlement. 

256 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

of  this  new  mistress  that  the  first  domestic  storm  arose 
but  owing  to  a  very  different  matter. 

The  position  of  Marguerite,  a  Catholic  in  the  midst 
of  a  Calvinist  community,  was  a  very  difficult  one  ; 
she  had,  at  the  same  time,  to  consider  the  Court  of  France, 
on  which  she  depended  for  her  revenues  and  the  inter- 
ests of  her  husband.  Although  the  edicts  of  Jeanne 
d'Albret,  which  interdicted  on  pain  of  death  all  exercise 
of  the  Catholic  religion,  had  been  repealed  by  Henri, 
in  1572,  after  his  compulsory  abjuration,  his  Huguenot 
subjects  had  refused  to  obey  the  Ordinance  extorted  from 
their  captive  sovereign,  and,  though,  since  the  King's 
return,  the  persecution  to  which  the  Catholics  were 
subjected  was  less  cruel,  it  was  quite  as  vexatious  as  in 
the  time  of  his  mother.  "  Since  there  was  no  exercise 
of  the  Catholic  religion,"  writes  Marguerite,  "  I  was 
only  permitted  to  have  Mass  said  in  a  little  chapel  four 
or  five  paces  long,  and  which,  being  extremely  narrow, 
was  quite  full  when  it  contained  only  seven  or  eight 
persons." 

At  the  hour  when  Mass  was  to  be  celebrated,  the  draw- 
bridge of  the  chateau  was  raised,  lest  the  Catholics  of 
the  country  should  come  and  hear  it.  But  on  Whit- 
Sunday  some  Catholic  peasants  succeeded  in  entering 
the  chateau  before  the  drawbridge  was  raised,  and  slipped 
into  the  little  chapel.  They  remained  undetected  until 
the  service  was  nearly  over,  when,  the  door  being  partly 
opened  to  admit  one  of  the  Queen's  suite,  some  Hugue- 
nots, who  were  peeping  in,  perceived  them  and  reported 
the  matter  to  Du  Pin,  the  King's  secretary,  "  who  had 
great  influence  with  his  master  and  great  authority  in 
his  Household,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  manage  all  the 

affairs  of  those  of  the  Religion." 

257  R 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Du  Pin,  a  bitter  Calvinist,  hastened  to  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity of  teaching  this  handful  of  refractory  Papists  a 
severe  lesson,  and,  at  the  same  time,  of  proving  to  them 
how  powerless  was  the  Queen  to  afford  them  protection. 
He,  accordingly,  despatched  a  number  of  the  King's 
guards  to  the  chapel,  who  seized  the  intruders,  dragged 
them  forth,  and  beat  them  in  her  Majesty's  presence, 
after  which  they  were  thrown  into  prison,  where  they 
remained  for  some  time,  in  addition  to  being  heavily 
fined. 

Marguerite,  greatly  incensed  at  the  treatment  of  her 
co-religionists,  and  not  less  at  the  slight  to  her  own 
dignity,  lost  no  time  in  seeking  her  husband  in  order  to 
complain  of  it,  and  to  beg  him  to  set  at  liberty  these  un- 
fortunate people,  who,  she  pointed  out,  had  not  deserved 
such  punishment,  merely  for  desiring,  after  having  been 
so  long  deprived  of  the  exercise  of  their  own  religion, 
to  take  advantage  of  her  coming,  and  to  attend  Mass 
on  the  occasion  of  so  solemn  a  feast.  But,  before  Henri 
could  reply,  Du  Pin  entered  the  room,  and,  "  ignoring 
the  respect  due  to  his  master,  instead  of  permitting  him 
to  answer,  took  up  the  conversation  himself,  telling  her 
not  to  worry  the  King  her  husband  about  such  a  matter, 
since,  whatever  she  might  say  would  not  alter  the  case  ; 
that  the  Catholics  had  been  deservedly  punished,  and  that 
she  should  rest  satisfied  with  being  permitted  to  have  a 
Mass  said  for  herself  and  such  of  her  people  as  she  wished 
to  attend  it." 

"  The  King  my  husband,"  continues  the  princess, 
"  perceiving  my  just  indignation,  ordered  him  to  leave 
my  presence,  and  assured  me  that  he  was  very  much 
annoyed  by  Du  Pin's  indiscretion,  and  that  it  was  his 
religious  zeal  which  had  carried  him  away ;  while,  with 

258 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

regard  to  the  Catholic  prisoners,  he  would  consult  with 
his  councillors  in  the  Parlement  of  Pau,  as  to  what 
could  be  done  to  satisfy  me." 

The  matter  eventually  ended  in  the  triumph  of 
Marguerite  and  the  dismissal  of  Du  Pin  ;  but  the  King 
was  at  no  pains  to  conceal  from  his  consort  that  he  parted 
from  him  with  the  greatest  reluctance,  and  treated  her 
for  some  time  very  coldly.  Nor  was  it  long  before  he 
found  an  excuse  for  restoring  his  presumptuous  secretary 
to  his  former  office. 

At  the  end  of  June,  the  Court,  to  Marguerite's  great 
satisfaction,  quitted  "  this  little  Geneva  of  a  Pau  "  for 
Montauban,  where  a  Huguenot  assembly  was  about  to 
meet  to  discuss  the  future  policy  of  the  party.  "  On 
the  way  thither,"  writes  the  Queen,  "  we  had  to  pass 
through  a  little  village  called  Eauze,1  where,  upon  the 
night  of  our  arrival,  the  King  my  husband  fell  ill  of  a 
severe  and  continuous  fever,  accompanied  by  a  violent 
headache,  which  lasted  seventeen  days,  during  which 
time  he  could  obtain  repose  neither  by  day  nor  by  night, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  change  him  continually  from  one 
bed  to  another.  I  devoted  myself  so  entirely  to  succour- 
ing him — never  quitting  him  for  a  moment  or  even 
removing  my  clothes — that  he  began  to  find  my  service 
agreeable,  and  to  praise  it  to  every  one,  particularly  to 
my  cousin,  M.  de  Turenne,8  who,  acting  the  part  of  a 
kind  kinsman,  re-established  me  as  firmly  as  ever  in  my 
husband's  good  graces.  According  to  Mongez,  one  ought 

1  A  very  ancient  town,  now  in  the  department  of  the  Gers. 

*  Henri  de  la  Tour  d'Auvergne,  afterwards  Due  de  Bouillon.  Hi? 
family  had  made  several  alliances  with  the  House  of  Bourbon,  on  the 
one  side  ;  while,  on  the  other,  Catherine  de  Medici  was  a  daughter  of 
Madeline  de  la  Tour,  Comtessc  de  Boulogne 

259 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

to  attribute  to  this  temporary  reconciliation  the  in- 
difference and  the  little  credit  which  the  King  of  Navarre 
appeared  to  attach  to  the  scandalous  reports  which  soon 
afterwards  began  to  circulate  about  the  conduct  of  his 
wife  and  the  viscount. 

After  a  short  stay  at  Montauban,  the  little  Court 
proceeded  to  Nerac  and  resumed  the  life  of  fe"tes  and 
amusements  which  had  marked  its  former  sojourn  there. 
Marguerite  appears  to  have  been  very  happy  at  Nerac, 
where  far  more  latitude  was  permitted  her  in  religious 
matters  than  had  been  the  case  at  Pau,  which  town  she 
cordially  detested.  In  both  places  the  Protestants  were, 
of  course,  largely  in  the  majority  ;  but  men  differ  accord- 
ing to  their  surroundings.  At  Pau,  it  was  the  bigoted 
Calvinistic  ministers  who  were  in  the  ascendency.  At 
Nerac,  the  military  nobility  prevailed,  and  Marguerite, 
d'Aubigne  tells  us,  had  quickly  taught  all  these  young 
Huguenots  "  a  derouiller  leurs  coeurs  et  a  laisser  rouiller 
leurs  armes."  "  Our  Court,"  she  writes,  "  was  so  brilliant 
that  we  had  no  cause  to  regret  that  of  France.  Besides 
myself,  with  a  number  of  ladies-  and  maids-of-honour, 
there  were  the  Princesse  de  Navarre,1  since  married  to 
the  Due  de  Bar,  and  the  King  my  husband,  with  a  goodly 
following  of  nobles  and  gentlemen — as  gallant  a  company 
as  ever  I  remember  to  have  seen  at  the  French  Court — 
the  only  drawback  being  that  its  members  were  Huguenot. 
The  difference  of  religion,  however,  was  never  alluded  to. 
The  King  my  husband,  and  the  princess  his  sister,  went 
off  in  one  direction  to  the  preche,  while  I  and  my  suite 
would  proceed  in  another  to  hear  Mass,  in  a  chapel 
situated  in  the  park,  after  which  it  was  our  custom  to 
reassemble  and  walk  together,  either  in  a  beautiful 

*  Henri's  sister,  Catherine  de  Bourbon. 
260 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

garden  with  long  alleys  planted  with  laurel  and  cypress, 
or  in  a  park,  which  I  had  laid  out  in  avenues,  three 
thousand  paces  long,  by  the  side  of  the  river.  And  the 
rest  of  the  day  was  passed  in  all  kinds  of  innocent  diver- 
sions, there  being,  as  a  rule,  dancing  both  after  dinner 
and  in  the  evening." 

When  the  Court  quitted  Pau,  Mile,  de  Rebours  had 
been  left  behind  ill,  and  by  the  time  she  was  sufficiently 
recovered  to  rejoin  it,  her  place  in  the  King's  affections 
had  been  usurped  by  another  of  his  wife's  maids-of- 
honour,  Mile,  de  Fosseux,  or  "  Fosseuse,"  as  the  Queen 
had  named  her.1  Fosseuse,  a  damsel  of  some  fifteen 
summers,  "  conducted  herself  with  virtue  and  propriety," 
and,  for  some  time,  the  affair  remained  in  its  preliminary 
stages.  At  the  same  time  that  he  flirted  with  this 
ingenue,  the  Bearnais,  who  had  not  the  smallest  objec- 
tion to  carrying  on  two  or  three  intrigues  at  once,  cast 
a  favourable  eye  upon  a  soubrette  in  his  wife's  service 
called  Xaintes,  "  avec  laquelle  il  familiarisait."  Under 
which  circumstances,  it  is  scarcely  surprising  that  his 
Majesty  should  have  felt  obliged  to  close  his  eyes  to  the 
very  marked  attentions  which  Marguerite  was  receiving 
from  the  Vicomte  de  Turenne,  and  that  it  should  have 
required  a  communication  from  his  royal  brother-in-law 
to  open  them. 

Shortly  before  this  thunder-cloud  made  its  appearance 
in  the  smiling  sky  of  Nerac,  Marguerite's  chancellor, 
Pibrac,  had  returned  to  Paris,  summoned  thither  by 
his  judicial  duties  in  the  Parlement,  and  carrying  with 
him  a  heart  ulcerated  by  an  unrequited  love.  Although 

1  Frar^oise  de  Montmorency,  fifth  daughter  of  Pierre  de  Montmo- 
rency, Marquis  de  Thury,  Baron  de  Fosseux.  She  married  Frai^ois 
de  Broc,  Baron  dc  Cinq-Mars. 

261 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

some  distance  on  the  shady  side  of  fifty,  M.  de  Pibrac 
had,  as  we  have  mentioned,  very  quickly  succumbed 
to  his  beautiful  mistress's  charms.  Whether  he  had 
dared  to  avow  the  passion  which  possessed  him  is  some- 
what doubtful — judging  from  a  letter  which  we  shall 
presently  have  occasion  to  cite,  it  would  appear  that  he 
had  not 1 — but,  any  way,  he  had  sighed  in  vain,  and  was 
consumed  by  a  most  violent  jealousy  of  his  successful 
rival  Turenne. 

On  his  return  to  the  capital,  Pibrac  was  admitted  to 
an  audience  of  the  King,  who,  with  fraternal  solicitude, 
questioned  him  closely  as  to  how  it  fared  with  his  dear 
sister  at  the  Court  of  Navarre,  and  soon  learned  from 
this  disappointed  lover  that  which  caused  him  to  rub 
his  hands  with  gratified  malice.  Pibrac  dismissed,  his 
Majesty  repaired  to  his  cabinet,  and  there,  with  his 
sneering  mignons  about  him,  indited  to  his  brother-in- 
law  a  letter,  wherein  he  informed  him  that  he  felt  it 
to  be  his  most  painful  duty  to  warn  him  of  the  rumours 
which  were  current  concerning  the  relations  existing 
between  his  consort  and  his  friend,  the  Vicomte  de 
Turenne,  adding  that  it  was  the  talk  of  the  whole  country, 
and  that  it  behoved  the  King  of  Navarre,  if  he  valued 
his  honour,  to  put  a  stop  to  such  a  scandal  without  a 
moment's  delay. 

His  Majesty  chuckled  gleefully,  as  he  affixed  his  seal 
to  the  letter,  reflecting  that  it  was  a  coup  worthy  of  a 
student  of  Machiavelli.  At  one  stroke,  he  would  injure 
Marguerite,  whom  he  hated,  put  an  end  to  the  good 
understanding  between  her  and  her  husband,  always 
a  menace  to  his  own  interests,  and  deprive  the  King  of 
Navarre  of  one  of  his  most  trusted  and  influential  followers. 

1  See  page  272  injr*. 
262 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

And  then,  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  his  content, 
he  entrusted  this  ill-omened  epistle  to  Strozzi,  who  was 
about  to  set  out  for  Nerac,  to  claim  the  restoration  of 
the  surety-towns  from  the  Huguenots,  and,  on  his  own 
account,  to  demand  the  hand  of  Turenne's  sister  in 
marriage.  The  King  disapproved  of  the  Italian  soldier's 
matrimonial  aspirations,  thinking  the  heiress  in  question 
a  suitable  match  for  one  of  his  mignons,  and  judged  that 
poor  Strozzi's  suit  was  not  likely  to  be  very  favourably 
received  by  the  lady's  brother,  when  he  inaugurated 
his  wooing  in  such  fashion.  Needless  to  say,  Strozzi 
was  left  in  happy  ignorance  of  the  contents  of  the  missive 
with  which  he  was  charged. 

But  the  coup  failed,  and,  moreover,  as  such  machina- 
tions not  infrequently  do,  recoiled  on  the  head  of  him 
who  had  contrived  it.  The  King  of  Navarre,  who 
knew  his  brother-in-law,  divined  the  snare,  and  avoided 
it  with  his  accustomed  dexterity.  Whether  he  believed 
the  charge  matters  little ;  he  had  too  much  to  be 
forgiven  not  to  forgive  his  wife,  and  certainly  could  not 
afford  to  quarrel  with  Turenne.  Laughing  with  well- 
assumed  incredulity,  he  laid  the  letter  before  the  delin- 
quents, who  expressed  their  opinion  of  the  King  of 
France's  conduct  in  no  measured  terms.  Marguerite 
was  mortally  offended.  Besides,  she  had  a  new  grievance 
against  his  Most  Christian  Majesty,  who  had  lately 
delivered  the  fascinating  Bussy  to  the  vengeance  of 
Montsoreau.1  She  vowed  to  make  her  malicious  brother 

1  Bussy,  having  seduced  the  Comtesse  de  Montsoreau,  had  had  the  bad 
taste  to  boast  of  his  conquest  and  wrote  to  Anjou  that  "  he  had  cast 
his  nets  over  the  hind  of  the  Grand  Huntsman  (the  Comte  de  Mont- 
soreau had  lately  been  appointed  to  that  post),  and  held  her  fast  in  his 
toils."  Monsieur,  to  amuse  the  King,  with  whom  he  was  now  recon- 
ciled, showed  him  the  letter.  Henri  III.,  who  hated  Bussy,  perceived  a 

263 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

pay  dearly  for  all  the  outrages  she  had  suffered  at  his  hands, 
and  could  find  no  better  way  than  to  fan  the  still  smoulder- 
ing embers  of  the  late  war  into  a  fresh  blaze.  To  this 
task,  she  devoted  herself  with  characteristic  energy  and 
ingenuity.  Henri  III.,  who  believed  that  all  the  troubles 
had  been  appeased  by  the  treaty  signed  at  Nerac,  "  ap- 
peared to  have  no  uneasiness  in  regard  to  Guienne,  and 
jested  with  his  mignons  about  the  King  his  brother-in- 
law,  whom  he  spoke  of  with  the  utmost  contempt." 
The  Due  de  Guise  also  permitted  himself  to  let  fall  some 
biting  gibes  at  the  expense  of  his  Majesty  of  Navarre, 
incited  thereto  by  Madame  de  Sauve,  now  his  mistress, 
who  had  not  forgiven  Henri  for  preferring  the  fresher 
charms  of  Mile.  Dayelle  to  hers.  Informed  of  these 
railleries,  by  letters  from  her  friends  in  Paris,  Marguerite 
employed  Fosseuse  to  repeat  them  to  the  King  and  incite 
his  wrath,  and  she  also  induced  Xaintes  to  bestir  herself 
with  the  same  object. 

Following  the  example  of  her  mother,  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  had  surrounded  herself  with  ladies  remarkable 
for  their  beauty,  but  whose  tastes  for  gallantry  involved 
her  in  many  troubles,  and,  like  Catherine,  made  use  of 
them  when  occasion  arose,  and  caused  them  to  espouse 
her  quarrels.  Several  of  these  ladies  were  beloved  by 
the  King's  councillors,  and  at  the  instance  of  their 
mistress  employed  all  their  powers  of  persuasion  to 

fine  opportunity  for  revenge.  He  kept  the  letter  and  handed  it  to  the 
injured  husband,  who  forced  his  wife  to  give  her  lover  a  rendezvous  at 
the  Chateau  of  Coutancere,  in  Anjou,  and  when  the  unsuspecting 
gallant  appeared,  fell  upon  him  with  a  band  of  bravos.  Bussy  fought 
with  his  usual  courage,  and,  after  his  sword  was  broken,  defended  him- 
self "with  tables,  benches,  chairs,  and  stools."  But,  though  he  killed 
and  wounded  several  of  his  assailants,  the  odds  against  him  were  too 
great,  and  he  was  eventually  overpowered  and  slain  (August  19,  1579). 

264 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

induce  their  admirers  to  urge  upon  Henri  a  renewal  of 
hostilities.  And  to  such  good  purpose  did  they  carry- 
out  her  orders  that  the  war  which  shortly  afterwards 
broke  out  was  called  the  "  Lovers'  War,"  "  a  name," 
observes  Mongez,  "  which  was  the  more  appropriate, 
since  none  of  those  who  composed  the  Council  of  the 
King  of  Navarre,  with  the  single  exception  of  Favas, 
whom  age  had  cured  of  the  follies  of  love,  was  exempt 
from  this  passion."  1 

It  is,  however,  probable  that  Marguerite's  intrigues 
did  little  more  than  precipitate  matters,  since  recourse 
to  arms  had  been  virtually  resolved  upon  at  the  Huguenot 
conference  which  met  at  Montauban  in  July  1579, 
while  the  Catholics  of  the  South  were  equally  eager  for 
war. 

The  chief  event  of  the  desultory  campaign  which 
followed  was  the  storming  of  Cahors,  which  afforded 
Henri  of  Navarre  an  opportunity  for  the  display  of  that 
obstinate  courage,  which  made  so  great  an  impression 
upon  the  imagination  of  his  countrymen,  and  earned  him 
the  admiration  and  respect  even  of  his  enemies. 

Cahors  was  the  capital  of  the  district  of  Quercy,  which 
formed  part  of  Marguerite's  appanage,  but  which  her 
husband  had  never  been  able  to  obtain  possession  of. 
It  was  an  exceedingly  difficult  place  to  take  by  assault, 
being  built  on  a  rock  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  a 
bend  of  the  River  Lot,  and  garrisoned  by  nearly  two 
thousand  men,  under  Jean  de  Vezins,  Seneschal  of 
Quercy.  Undaunted  by  the  difficulties  of  such  an 
undertaking,  in  the  night  of  May  5-6,  1580,  the  King 
of  Navarre,  with  some  three  thousand  men,  approached 
the  town,  and,  favoured  by  a  violent  storm,  contrived 

1  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Vahls. 
265 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

to  get  close  to  the  walls  without  being  observed.  Two 
of  the  gates  were  quickly  blown  in  by  petards,  and  the 
Huguenots  rushed  into  the  town.  They  met,  however, 
with  a  furious  resistance,  for  the  townspeople,  nearly 
all  fanatical  Catholics,who  had  persecuted  their  Protestant 
fellow-citizens  with  relentless  cruelty,  rallied  to  the 
assistance  of  the  garrison,  and,  in  full  belief  that  no 
quarter  was  to  be  expected  from  their  enemies,  fought 
with  all  the  courage  of  despair.  The  steep  and  narrow 
streets  of  the  town  were  all  in  favour  of  the  defenders, 
and  the  assailants  fell  in  scores  beneath  the  fire  of  the 
garrison  and  the  missiles  which  rained  upon  them  from 
every  housetop.  Henri's  followers  urged  him  to  abandon 
the  unequal  contest  and  retire  before  reinforcements 
could  arrive  for  the  garrison.  But  the  King  replied 
that  "  the  only  retreat  should  be  that  of  his  soul  from 
his  body,"  and  insisted  on  continuing  the  fight.  For 
four  days  and  nights  the  combat  raged  without  inter- 
mission, until,  at  length,  Vezins,  having  been  mortally 
wounded  and  the  greater  part  of  the  garrison  having 
fallen,  Cahors  surrendered. 

But  this  brilliant  feat  of  arms  could  not  atone  for  the 
King  of  Navarre's  lack  of  resources,  as  the  more  sober 
Protestants  disapproved  of  a  war  so  lightly  undertaken, 
and  La  Rochelle  and  several  other  towns  had  refused  to 
send  assistance.  Henri  III.,  furious  at  the  fall  of  Cahors, 
took  energetic  measures,  and  despatched  three  armies 
against  the  Huguenots.  That  which  operated  in  Guienne 
under  the  command  of  Biron,  the  King's  lieutenant 
in  that  province,  was  alone  much  superior  in  numbers 
to  any  which  Henri  of  Navarre  could  place  in  the  field, 
and,  after  taking  Mont-de-Marsan  and  several  other 
towns,  appeared  before  Nirac. 

266 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

At  Marguerite's  request,  it  had  been  arranged  at  the 
commencement  of  hostilities,  that  Nerac  should  be  con- 
sidered neutral  ground,  unless  the  King  of  Navarre 
should  himself  be  there,  in  which  case  the  neutrality  was 
to  lapse,  and  the  royal  forces  to  be  at  liberty  to  attack 
it.  Unfortunately,  almost  at  the  same  moment  as 
Biron's  troops  showed  themselves  on  some  rising  ground 
near  the  town,  Henri,  anxious  to  spend  a  few  days  in  the 
company  of  his  beloved  Fosseuse,  returned  to  Ne"rac, 
and  the  marshal,  therefore,  felt  himself  justified  in 
commencing  offensive  operations.  The  royal  forces 
blockaded  the  town  for  two  or  three  days,  and,  at  one 
time,  might  have  taken  it,  had  they  acted  with  a  little 
more  vigour,  as  the  King,  deceived  by  some  false  in- 
formation, had  withdrawn  nearly  all  his  troops  to  oppose 
the  advance  of  some  reinforcements  for  Biron,  which, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  had  already  effected  their  junction 
with  the  besiegers. 

Finally,  the  marshal  "  caused  five  or  six  volleys  of 
cannon-shot  to  be  fired  into  the  town,"  and  marched 
away,  having  previously  despatched  a  trumpeter  to  the 
Queen,  "  to  present  his  excuses  and  assure  her  that,  had 
she  been  alone  in  the  town,  nothing  would  have  induced 
him  to  act  as  he  had  done."  To  which  her  indignant 
Majesty  returned  answer  that  "  he  might  perfectly 
well  have  allowed  her  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
the  King  her  husband  for  those  three  days  at  Nerac  ; 
that  he  could  not  attack  him,  when  in  her  presence, 
without  attacking  her  also,  and  that  she  was  extremely 
offended  at  his  conduct,  and  should  complain  of  it  to  the 
King  her  brother." 

After  the  blockade  of  Nerac,  Marguerite  appears  to 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  high  time  she 

267 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

extricated  her  husband  from  the  very  precarious  position 
in  which  she  had  placed  him,  and  she,  therefore,  directed 
her  energies  to  bring  about  the  conclusion  of  peace. 
"  I  beg  of  you,"  she  writes  to  Catherine's  confidante, 
the  Duchesse  d'Uzes,  "  to  remind  my  mother  of  what 
I  am  to  her,  and  to  beg  her  not  to  render  me,  whom  she 
brought  into  the  world,  so  miserable  as  that  I  should 
remain  deprived  of  her  favour  and  protection."  1  She 
also  wrote  to  Monsieur  to  request  his  good  offices,  to 
which  that  prince  readily  acceded.  Henri  III.,  on  his 
side,  with  his  finances  exhausted,  and  harassed  by  the 
intrigues  of  Spain  and  the  Guises,  had  no  desire  to  prolong 
the  war,  and  Anjou  set  out  for  Gascony,  with  full  powers 
to  treat  on  his  behalf 

As  the  result  of  a  conference  held  at  Fleix,  in  Perigord, 
a  treaty  was  drawn  up,  which  confirmed  all  previous 
concessions  to  the  Reformers,  and  secured  to  Marguerite 
the  enjoyment  of  her  appanage.  To  satisfy  the  outraged 
dignity  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  Biron  was  superseded 
in  his  office  of  King's  lieutenant  in  Guienne  by  the 
Marechal  de  Matignon. 

And  so  ended  the  "  Lovers'  War,"  and  Marguerite 
and  her  husband  must  have  congratulated  themselves 
in  getting  very  well  out  of  what  had  promised  to  be  an 
exceedingly  awkward  predicament. 

1  Memoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  (edit.  Guessard). 


C63 


CHAPTER   XIX 

Rivalry  between  the  King  of  Navarre  and  Monsieur  over 
Fosscuse  appeased  by  Marguerite — Harlay  de  Chanvallon — His 
fiaisftt  with  the  Queen  of  Navarre — The  Queen  demands  the 
disgrace  of  d'Aubigne,  charged  with  circulating  scandalous 
reports  about  her — Departure  of  Anjou — Passionate  letters 
addressed  to  Chanvallon  by  Marguerite — Indiscretions  of 
Pibrac,  whom  the  Queen  dismisses  from  her  service — Fosseuse 
becomes  the  mistress  of  the  King  and  intrigues  against  Mar- 
guerite— The  Queen  goes  to  Bagneres-de-Bigorre — Interview 
between  Marguerite  and  Fosseuse — A  Court  scandal — The 
Queen  accepts  Henri  III.'s  invitation  to  visit  Paris. 

ANJOU  remained  in  the  South  until  the  end  of  the  follow- 
ing April,  notwithstanding  that  he  was  being  urgently 
pressed  to  succour  Cambrai,  which  had  been  duly 
delivered  to  him  by  d'Inchy,  and  was  now  closely  besieged 
by  the  Spaniards  under  Parma.  Monsieur,  who  had  a 
marvellous  aptitude  for  making  mischief  wherever  he 
went,  did  not  fail  to  keep  up  his  reputation  in  this  respect. 
He  fell  in  love  with  the  fair  Fosseuse,  and,  for  a  time, 
there  reigned  between  him  and  his  royal  host  almost  as 
bitter  a  rivalry  as  had  existed  in  the  days  when  they  were 
both  at  the  feet  of  Madame  de  Sauve.  Nor  was  this 
all ;  for  the  King  conceived  the  idea  that  his  consort, 
through  jealousy  of  Fosseuse,  was  favouring  her  brother's 
equivocal  attentions  to  the  damsel,  and  began  to  treat 
her  with  marked  coldness.  To  remedy  this  painful  state 
of  affairs,  the  Queen  was  forced  to  intervene  and  secure 
to  Henri  the  peaceable  possession  of  his  enchantress, 

269 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

by  "  pointing  out  to  her  brother  the  misery  he  would  bring 
upon  her  by  this  courtship."  Whereupon  that  mag- 
nanimous prince,  "  caring  as  he  did  more  for  her  happi- 
ness than  his  own,  subdued  his  passion."  1 

Anjou  had  brought  with  him  his  usual  train  of  roues 
and  bravos,  but,  among  his  following,  was  a  man  of  a 
different  stamp.  This  was  his  grand  equerry,  Jacques 
de  Harlay,  Seigneur  de  Chanvallon,  one  of  the  handsomest 
men  of  his  time.  He  and  Marguerite  had  met  at  La 
Fere,  during  Anjou's  visit  to  his  sister  after  her  return 
from  Flanders,  and  would  appear  to  have  been  very 
favourably  impressed  with  one  another.  At  La  Fere, 
however,  the  Queen  had  been  too  occupied  in  entertain- 
ing her  brother  and  discussing  with  him  the  prospect 
of  his  Flemish  enterprise  to  have  had  much  time  to  spare 
for  his  attendants,  however  fascinating.  But  at  Cadillac, 
to  which  the  Court  of  Navarre  proceeded  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Treaty  of  Fleix,  their  intimacy  progressed 
rapidly,  and  eventually  Chanvallon  avowed  his  passion. 
Marguerite  reciprocated  it,  and  the  handsome  cavalier 
does  not  seem  to  have  long  sighed  in  vain.2 

Sainte-Beuve,  who  bases  his  opinion  on  a  perusal  of 
the  letters  which  the  Queen  subsequently  addressed 
to  her  admirer,  thinks  that  "  she  loved  not  with  the 
heart,  but  rather  with  the  head  and  the  imagination."  s 

1  Memoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  (edit.  Guessard). 

2  Even  Marguerite's  ardent  apologist,  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  who  will 
not  allow  that  La  M&le,  Bussy,  and  Turenne  were  anything  more   than 
humble  worshippers,  is  constrained  to  admit  this,  though  he  excuses  his 
heroine's  conduct  on  the  ground  that  she  was  "  wounded  in  her  wifely 
susceptibilities  and  outraged    in  her  dignity  as   Queen,"  and  "tfune 
complexion  trep  ardente  ptur  ne  pas  cider  a  la  tentation  " 

3  Caustries  du  Lundi,  vol.  vi.     La  Reine  Marguerite,  jes  me'moires  et  des 
iettret. 

270 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

However  that  may  be,  she  appears  to  have  acted  with 
singular  indiscretion,  and,  while  at  Cadillac,  a  report 
spread  that  her  Majesty  and  M.  de  Chanvallon  had  been 
detected  in  a  most  compromising  situation.  The 
originator  of  this  rumour  was  the  malicious  d'Aubigne — 
the  presumed  author  of  the  Divorce  satyrique — and  the 
infuriated  princess  hurried  to  her  consort  and  demanded 
his  instant  dismissal.  Henri  felt  unable  to  refuse  her 
the  satisfaction  she  demanded  ;  but,  as  he  was  naturally 
very  reluctant  to  part  with  his  faithful  equerry,  he  had 
recourse  to  stratagem.  D'Aubigne  was  ostensibly  dis- 
missed ;  but  it  was  arranged  that  he  should  remain  in 
hiding  during  the  day,  and  when  night  fell,  return  to  his 
master's  apartments  in  the  chateau.  This  arrangement  con- 
tinued until  her  Majesty's  wrath  was  sufficiently  appeased 
to  admit  of  the  delinquent's  public  restoration  to  his  office. 

At  the  end  of  April  1581,  Monsieur  took  his  departure, 
and  Chanvallon  followed  him.  This  enforced  separation, 
far  from  cooling  Marguerite's  passion,  seems  only  to 
have  inflamed  it,  and  she  addressed  to  her  absent  lover 
the  most  tender  letters.  "  Absence,  constraint,"  writes 
she  to  him,  "  serves  to  increase  my  love,  as  much  as  it 
would  diminish  that  of  a  feeble  soul  inflamed  by  a  vulgar 
passion.  ...  Be  sure  that  the  hour  when  you  change 
will  be  that  of  my  end.  ...  I  live  no  more  save  in  you, 
mon  beau  tout,  ma  seule  et  farfaite  beaute.  ...  I 
kiss  a  million  times  those  beautiful  eyes,  that  beautiful 
hair,  my  dear  and  sweet  fetters ;  I  kiss  a  million  times 
that  beautiful  and  lovable  mouth ; "  and  so  forth.1 

Very  different  in  tone  were  the  letters  which  Mar- 
guerite addressed  to  her  unfortunate  chancellor,  Pibrac. 
The  Queen  was  considerably  indebted  to  Pibrac,  who 

1  Memoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Vakis  (edit.  Guessard). 

271 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

had  taken  off  her  hands  an  hotel  in  Paris,  which  Henri  III. 
had  given  her — the  Hotel  d'Anjou,  situated  near  the 
Louvre — at  a  price  considerably  in  excess  of  its  market 
value,  and  advanced  her  large  sums  of  money,  as  much 
as  35,000  ecus,  according  to  one  account.  But  she 
suspected  him  of  playing  a  double  part  and  of  slandering 
her  to  Henri  III.,  and  was  highly  indignant.  In  March 
1581,  he  wrote  the  princess  a  very  imprudent  letter,  to 
warn  her  that  an  astrologer  in  Paris  had  predicted  that, 
in  the  course  of  that  month,  her  husband  would  slay  her 
with  his  own  hands,  and  imploring  her  to  take  refuge  at 
Agen.  And  this  he  followed  by  another,  wherein  he 
excused  his  interference  on  the  ground  of  the  love  he 
bore  her.  Marguerite,  however,  repulsed  her  grey- 
haired  admirer's  homage  with  disdain.  "  You  have 
written,"  she  replies,  "  an  excuse  not  less  indiscreet 
and  little  becoming  so  wise  a  man,  namely,  that  nothing 
else  had  urged  you  to  give  me  this  warning,  save  the 
extreme  passion  you  entertain  for  me,  which  you  had  not 
dared  to  confess.  These  are  strange  proceedings  for 
a  man  such  as  you  are,  and  would  be  little  to  your  advan- 
tage, were  they  to  come  to  any  one's  knowledge,  which 
I  do  not  intend  them  to  do  ...  since  I  desire  no  other 
witness  than  your  conscience,  which  will  be  your  judge."1 
Nevertheless,  she  showed  the  letter  to  her  husband, 
and  the  matter  soon  became  common  knowledge,  and 
poor  Pibrac  the  laughing-stock  of  Paris. 

J'£tais  president 

En  la  cour  du  Parlement, 

Je  m'en  suis  defait, 

Reine  Margot,  Marguerite 

Je  m'en  suis  defait 

Pour  e'tre  a  vous  tout  A  fait. 

4  Metnoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  (edit.  Guessard). 

272 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

So  ran  one  of  the  numerous  chansons  that  were  made 
about  him. 

Moreover,  the  indignant  Queen  ordered  him  to  sur- 
render his  seals  as  her  chancellor,  and  refused  to  pardon 
him,  though  he  sought  to  extenuate  the  inflammatory 
expressions  which  had  so  offended  her.  "  Our  fashion 
to-day,"  he  writes,  "  is  full  of  excess.  One  no  longer 
makes  use  of  the  words,  '  to  love '  and  *  to  serve.'  One 
adds  to  them  '  extremely,'  '  passionately,'  '  madly,'  and 
other  similar  expressions ;  even  so  far  as  to  invest  with 
divinity  things  which  are  less  than  human." 

The  Queen  of  Navarre  had  soon  a  more  serious  cause 
for  annoyance  than  the  imprudent  letters  of  her  infatuated 
chancellor.  Mile.  Fosseuse,  who  had,  for  some  time,  only 
allowed  the  King  "  such  familiarities  as  might  with  all 
propriety  be  permitted,"  had  ended,  as  might  have  been 
foreseen,  "  in  surrendering  herself  entirely  to  his  will," 
with  results  of  a  very  embarrassing  nature.  "  Where- 
upon," continues  Marguerite,  "  finding  herself  in  this 
condition,  her  bearing  towards  me  changed,  and,  instead 
of  being  frank  with  me,  as  was  her  custom,  and  rendering 
me  all  the  good  services  in  her  power  with  respect  to 
the  King  my  husband,  she  began  avoiding  me,  and  render- 
ing me  as  many  evil  turns  as  she  had  formerly  done  me 
good  ones.  She  possessed  so  much  influence  over  the 
King,  that,  in  a  very  short  while,  I  perceived  that  he  was 
wholly  changed.  He  became  estranged,  avoided  me, 
and  no  longer  took  the  same  pleasure  in  my  society  as 
when  Fosseuse  had  conducted  herself  with  propriety." 

On  the  return  of  the  King  and  Queen  to  Nerac, 
Fosseuse,  either  in  order  to  conceal  her  condition,  "  ou 
bien  pour  se  dtfaire  de  ce  qu'elle  avait,"  put  it  into  his 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Majesty's  head  to  propose  to  his  consort  that  they  should 
pay  a  visit  to  the  baths  of  Eaux-Chaudes  (Aigues-Caudes) 
in  the  valley  of  Osseau,  in  Beam.  "  I  begged  the  King 
my  husband  to  excuse  me  if  I  did  not  accompany  him  to 
Eaux  Chaudes,"  writes  Marguerite,  "  as  he  knew  that, 
since  the  indignity  to  which  I  had  been  subjected  at 
Pau,  I  had  made  a  vow  never  to  enter  Beam,  unless  the 
Catholic  religion  were  re-established  there.  He  then 
told  me  that  '  his  girl '  (for  thus  he  designated  Fosseuse) 
required  to  take  the  waters,  for  the  indigestion  from  which 
she  suffered.  I  told  him  that  I  was  perfectly  willing 
that  she  should  go  there.  He  replied  that  it  would  not 
be  seemly  for  her  to  go  without  me  ;  that  it  would  cause 
people  to  imagine  evil  where  none  existed ;  and  he 
became  very  much  annoyed  with  me,  because  I  did  not 
wish  to  take  her." 

Finally,  it  was  arranged  that  Fosseuse,  accompanied 
by  two  of  her  colleagues,  Henri's  former  flame,  Mile,  de 
Rebours,  and  a  Mile.  Villesave,  and  their  gouvernante^ 
should  go  to  Eaux-Chaudes,  while  the  Queen  was  to 
betake  herself  to  Bagneres-de-Bigorre. 

It  would  appear  that,  at  this  time,  Marguerite  enter- 
tained some  hope  of  presenting  her  fickle  husband  with 
an  heir,  for  we  find  her  writing  to  Catherine  :  "  I  am 
at  the  baths  of  Bagneres,  whither  I  have  come  to  see 
whether  I  shall  be  so  fortunate  as  to  increase  the  number 
of  your  servants.  Several  persons  have  found  them  very 
beneficial.  I  shall  not  fail,  on  my  return  to  Nerac,  to 
acquaint  you  with  the  benefit  I  have  received."  1 

In  this,  however,  she  was  doomed  to  disappointment, 

1  Lettres  incites  de  Marguerite  de  Valot$t  Archives  Historiques  of 
Gascony,  cited  by  M.  Charles  Merki,  La  Relne  Margot  et  la  Jin  aes 
Valois,  p,  247. 

274 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

nor  was  his  chagrin  diminished  by  the  fact  that  she  was 
receiving  daily  reports  from  Mile,  de  Rebours — "  a 
corrupt  and  deceitful  girl,  who  was  only  desirous  of 
ousting  Fosseuse,  in  order  that  she  might  supplant  her 
in  the  good  graces  of  the  King  my  husband  " — that  Fos- 
seuse was  using  every  endeavour  to  estrange  his  Majesty 
from  his  wife,  "  and  was  persuading  herself  that,  if  she 
had  a  son,  and  could  get  rid  of  her,  she  might  marry 
the  King."  1 

In  consequence,  the  Queen's  sojourn  at  Bagneres 
seems  to  have  been  a  very  mournful  one,  and  she  assures 
us  that  "  she  shed  tears  as  numerous  as  the  drops  of 
water  which  the  King  and  his  companions  were  drinking 
at  Eaux-Chaudes,  notwithstanding  that  she  was  sur- 
rounded by  all  the  Catholic  nobility  of  those  parts, 
who  used  every  endeavour  to  make  her  forget  her 
troubles." 

After  a  stay  of  four  or  five  weeks  at  Eaux-Chaudes, 
Henri  and  the  maids-of-honour  returned,  and  the  Court 
proceeded  to  Nerac,  where  the  condition  of  Mile.  Fos- 
seuse became  the  chief  topic  of  conversation,  not  only  at 
the  Court,  but  in  all  the  country  round.  The  Queen 
determined  to  put  a  stop  to  the  scandal,  and,  summoning 
her  rival  to  her  cabinet,  addressed  her  as  follows : 

"  In  spite  of  your  having  for  some  time  estranged 
yourself  from  me,  and  of  people  having  endeavoured 
to  induce  me  to  believe  that  you  are  making  mischief 
between  the  King  my  husband  and  myself,  the  friendship 
that  I  have  borne  you,  and  that  which  I  entertain  for 
the  honourable  persons  to  whom  you  are  related  [the 

1  It  would  appear  that  Henri,  in  accordance  with  the  practice  he 
adopted  with  several  later  enchantresses,  had  promised  the  lady  that, 
if  she  bore  him  a  son,  he  would  repudiate  the  Queen  and  marry  her. 

275 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Montmorency  family],  does  not  admit  of  my  refusing 
you  assistance  in  the  unfortunate  position  in  which  you 
find  yourself.  And  this,  I  beg,  you  will  not  deny  me, 
nor  desire  to  ruin  both  your  reputation  and  my  own  ; 
for,  since  you  are  in  my  service,  I  have  as  much  interest 
in  the  matter  as  you  have.  You  may  rely  on  my  acting 
towards  you  like  a  mother.  I  have  found  means  to  go, 
under  the  pretext  of  the  plague,  which,  as  you  are  aware, 
is  in  this  country,  and  even  in  this  city,  to  Mas  d'Agenais, 
a  house  belonging  to  the  King  my  husband,  situated  in  a 
very  lonely  spot.  I  will  take  with  me  only  such  following 
as  you  may  choose.  Meanwhile,  the  King  my  husband 
will  go  hunting  in  another  direction,  and  will  not  return 
until  after  your  delivery,  and  we  shall  thus  put  an  end 
to  the  scandal,  which  concerns  me  no  less  than  yourself." 

Instead  of  being  grateful  for  her  Majesty's  magna- 
nimity, Fosseuse  answered,  with  a  fine  assumption  of 
injured  innocence,  that  she  would  give  the  lie  to  all 
those  who  spoke  ill  of  her,  and  accused  Marguerite  of 
seeking  a  pretext  to  compass  her  ruin.  Then  she  left 
the  Queen's  cabinet  in  a  rage,  and  went  to  inform  the 
King  of  what  had  passed.  Henri  was  no  less  incensed 
than  his  mistress,  declared  that  she  had  been  shamefully 
maligned,  and  did  not  fail  to  show  Marguerite  how  much 
he  resented  her  interference. 

However,  one  night,  some  three  or  four  months  after 
the  conversation  just  related,  there  came  a  doctor  knock- 
ing at  the  door  of  the  royal  bedchamber,  with  tidings 
of  a  very  urgent  nature  for  his  Majesty's  ear  alone. 
"  My  husband,"  writes  Marguerite,  "  was  greatly  em- 
barrassed as  to  what  he  should  do,  fearing,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  she  (Fosseuse)  might  be  discovered,  and, 
on  the  other,  that  she  might  not  receive  proper 

276 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

attention,  for  he  loved  her  dearly.  Finally  he  decided 
to  confess  everything  to  me,  and  to' implore  me  to  go 
to  her  assistance,  being  assured,  notwithstanding  what  had 
happened  in  the  past,  that  he  would  always  find  me 
ready  to  serve  him.  He  therefore  drew  aside  my  bed- 
curtains,  and  said  to  me  :  *  M'amie,  I  have  concealed 
something  from  you  that  I  must  now  avow.  I  entreat 
you  to  pardon  me,  and  not  to  bear  in  mind  what  I  have 
said  to  you  on  the  matter ;  but  to  oblige  me  by  rising 
at  once  and  going  to  the  assistance  of  Fosseuse,  who  is 
very  ill.  I  am  sure  that,  seeing  her  in  this  state,  you  will 
not  harbour  resentment  for  what  has  passed.  You 
know  how  much  I  love  her ;  I  entreat  you,  therefore, 
to  do  me  this  favour." 

The  Queen  replied  that  "  she  honoured  him  too  much 
to  take  anything  amiss  that  he  proposed,"  and  that  she 
would  hasten  to  Fosseuse,  and  "  behave  to  her  as  though 
she  were  her  own  daughter."  At  the  same  time,  she 
advised  her  husband  to  go  away  on  a  hunting  expedition, 
so  as  to  minimise  the  danger  of  the  affair  getting  about. 

Marguerite  kept  her  word,  and  "  God  willed  that 
Fosseuse  should  give  birth  to  a  daughter,  who,  moreover, 
was  still-born."  If  a  son  had  been  born  and  had  survived, 
who  could  have  foreseen  the  unpleasant  consequences 
that  might  have  ensued  ?  But  "  in  spite  of  employing 
the  greatest  discretion,"  the  news  of  the  event  was  soon 
all  over  the  chateau,  and  when  the  King  returned  from 
the  chase,  he  begged  his  wife  to  pay  a  second  visit  to 
Fosseuse,  thinking  by  this  means  to  silence  the  rumours 
that  were  afloat. 

Her  Majesty,  however,  not  unnaturally,  considering 
that,  in  consenting  to  act  the  part  of  a  mother  to  her 
husband's  mistress,  she  had  carried  her  complacency 

277 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

far  enough  for  one  day,  declined.  "  I  replied,"  she  writes, 
"  that  I  had  visited  her  when  she  had  need  of  my  assist- 
ance, but  that  now  she  no  longer  required  it,  and  that, 
if  I  went  to  her,  I  should  be  revealing  rather  than  conceal- 
ing what  had  occurred,  and  that  every  one  would  point 
the  finger  of  scorn  at  me.  He  was  extremely  angry  with 
me,  which  displeased  me  very  much,  since  I  did  not 
consider  that,  after  what  I  had  done  in  the  morning, 
I  deserved  such  a  reward."  And  Marguerite  adds : 
"  She  (Fosseuse)  often  incited  him  to  get  into  these 
tempers  against  me." 

These  domestic  annoyances  caused  Marguerite  to 
conceive  a  decided  aversion  for  the  little  Court  of  Nerac, 
which  she  had  once  found  so  pleasant,  and  to  inspire 
her  with  a  desire  to  leave  it  for  a  time,  and  return  to 
Paris.  During  her  residence  in  Beam  and  Gascony,  she 
had  received  more  than  one  invitation  from  Henri  III. 
and  Catherine  to  visit  them,  and  soon  after  the  Fosseuse 
affair,  it  happened  that  another  and  particularly  pressing 
one  arrived.  Henri  III.,  who  was  kept  well  informed 
by  his  agents  at  Nerac  of  all  that  went  on  at  that  Court, 
and  had  been  duly  acquainted  with  the  details  of  the 
recent  scandal,  judged  that,  after  what  had  occurred, 
the  indignant  Queen  would  not  be  averse  to  a  temporary 
separation  from  her  husband.  And  that  she  might  not 
delay  her  departure  from  need  of  the  necessary  funds, 
he  transmitted  to  her  the  sum  of  15,000  ecus, 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that,  in  sending  this  invitation, 
his  Majesty  was  actuated  by  any  motive  of  affection.  On 
the  contrary,  since  the  "  Lovers'  War,"  he  had  detested 
his  sister,  if  possible,  more  cordially  than  ever.  But  he 
had  found,  to  his  cost,  that  she  was  a  force  to  be  reckoned 

278 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

with,  and  desired  to  make  one  more  effort  to  disarm 
her  hostility  and  make  her  his  ally.  That  he  would 
be  successful  in  this,  he  probably  entertained  but  slight 
hope.  Nevertheless,  to  separate  her  and  her  husband 
could  not  fail  to  be  of  advantage  to  him  ("  It  would 
.prove  like  the  breaking  of  the  Macedonian  phalanx," 
says  Marguerite)  ;  while  if  he  could  contrive  to  put  an 
end  to  the  good  understanding  on  political  matters, 
which,  in  spite  of  their  domestic  differences,  had  always 
existed  between  them,  it  would  be  a  great  point  gained. 

Several  reasons  contributed  to  determine  Marguerite 
to  accept  the  invitation.  The  revenues  of  her  appanage 
were  in  arrears,  and  she  was  deeply  in  debt ;  a  visit  to 
the  capital  was  absolutely  necessary  to  restore  her  affairs 
to  some  degree  of  order.  She  had  grown  tired  of  Nerac, 
and  looked  forward  with  all  the  zest  of  an  exile  to  the 
gaieties  of  the  Louvre ;  while  "  she  also  thought  that 
her  departure  might  serve  to  turn  the  King  her  husband 
from  his  passion  for  Fosseuse — whom  she  was  taking 
with  her — and  that  once  she  (Fosseuse)  was  out  of  his 
sight,  he  might  possibly  take  up  with  some  one  else, 
who  would  be  less  hostile  to  her."  Finally — and  this 
probably  had  more  weight  with  her  than  anything — 
she  cherished  the  hope  of  meeting  le  beau  Chanvallon 
again,  and  renewing  with  him  their  interrupted 
romance. 

The  King  of  Navarre,  for  some  time,  strongly  opposed 
his  wife's  resolution,  being  unwilling  to  resign  himself 
to  the  loss  of  his  Fosseuse.  "  He  became,  in  consequence, 
much  kinder  to  me,"  says  Marguerite,  "  and  was  anxious 
that  I  should  abandon  my  intention  of  returning  to 
France.  But,  since  I  had  already  given  my  promise 
in  my  letters  to  the  King  and  the  Queen  my  mother, 

279 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  had  even  received  the  aforementioned  sum  [the 
15,000  ecus  for  the  journey],  the  evil  fate  which  was 
luring  me  to  Court  prevailed  over  the  scanty  desire  that 
I  felt  to  proceed  thither,  now  that  the  King  my  husband 
was  beginning  to  treat  me  with  more  affection."  * 

1  Memoirtj  et  lettra  de  Marguerite  tie  Vabis  (edit.  Guessard). 


280 


CHAPTER   XX 

The  Memoires  of  Marguerite  de  Valois  terminate  at  the  date 
of  her  return  to  Paris — Question  of  their  continuation  con- 
sidered— Henri  III.  accords  his  sister  a  very  gracious  reception, 
and  consents  to  the  augmentation  of  her  appanage — Mar- 
guerite purchases  the  H6tel  de  Birague — Her  correspondence 
with  her  husband — Fresh  rupture  between  them,  owing  to  the 
Queen  of  Navarre's  dismissal  of  Fosseuse  from  her  service — 
Letters  of  Marguerite  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  to  the  King 
of  Navarre — Marguerite's  mortification  at  the  marriage  of 
Chanvallon — Total  failure  of  Anjou's  Flemish  enterprise — 
Strained  relations  between  the  Queen  of  Navarre  and 
Henri  III. — Renewal  of  the  liaison  between  Marguerite  and 
Chanvallon — A  courier  bearing  a  letter  from  the  King  to  the 
Due  de  Joyeuse  murdered  and  robbed — Henri  III.  publicly 
insults  his  sister  at  a  ball  at  the  Louvre,  and  orders  her  to 
return  to  her  husband — Between  Palaiseau  and  Saint-Clair,  she 
and  some  of  her  attendants  are  arrested  and  conveyed  to 
Montargis — Henri  III.  interrogates  Mesdames  de  Duras  and 
de  Bethune — Marguerite  and  her  attendants  liberated,  through 
the  intervention  of  Catherine — The  King  of  Navarre  refuses 
to  receive  his  wife,  until  his  brother-in-law  accords  him  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  these  proceedings — Marguerite's 
letter  to  her  mother — After  long  negotiations  between  the 
two  Courts,  a  reconciliation  is  affected. 

THE  Mtmoires  of  Marguerite  de  Valois  unfortunately 
terminate  at  the  date  when  she  left  Nerac  to  return  to 
Paris,  that  is  to  say,  at  the  end  of  January  1582,  a  cir- 
cumstance which  is  the  more  to  be  regretted,  since  the 
latter  part  of  her  life  was  not  less  interesting  than  that 

281 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

which,  we  have  already  recounted,  and  contains  many 
incidents  which  she  alone  could  have  satisfactorily 
explained.  However,  if  the  Memoires  fail  us,  we  have, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  number  of  her  letters,  which  serve 
in  some  degree  to  supply  the  omission.1 

Marguerite,  accompanied  by  her  husband,  left  Nerac 
on  January  26,  1582,  and  proceeded,  by  way  of  Jarnac, 
Saint-Jean — d'Angely,  Saintes,  and  Saint-Maixent,  to 
La  Mothe  Saint-Heraye,  where,  on  March  31,  they  were 
met  by  Catherine.  The  interview  was  a  very  cordial 
one,  and  Catherine  would  fain  have  persuaded  the  King 
of  Navarre  to  accompany  his  wife  to  Paris.  But  the 
astute  Bearnais  courteously  excused  himself ;  having 
enjoyed  the  sweets  of  liberty  and  independence  so  long, 
he  had  no  mind  to  return  to  the  cage  from  which  he 
had  experienced  so  much  difficulty  in  escaping.  He, 
therefore,  accompanied  the  two  Queens  as  far  as  the 
Chateau  of  Montreuil-Bonnin,  in  Vienne,  and  then  made 
his  way  to  La  Rochelle  and  thence  to  Montauban,  where 
a  Huguenot  convention  was  about  to  meet. 

L'Estoile,  by  some  extraordinary  error — which  is 
repeated  by  M.  de  Saint-Poncy — reports  the  Queen  of 

1  Many  historians  are  of  opinion  that  the  manuscript  which  has  come 
down  to  us  forms  only  a  portion  of  Marguerite's  work,  and  that  the 
Memoires  were  continued  at  least  down  to  the  time  of  her  installation 
at  the  Chateau  of  Usson,  in  November  1 586,  if  not  considerably  beyond 
it.  It  certainly  seems  to  have  been  the  Queen's  intention  to  continue 
them,  for,  in  her  dedication  to  Brantome,  she  informs  him  that  she  will 
rectify  certain  details  of  his  iloge  of  her,  notably,  concerning  what 
occurred  at  Agen  and  her  departure  from  Usson,  that  is  to  say,  events 
which  happened  in  the  years  1585  and  I  587.  If  then  the  Memoires  were 
continued,  what  became  of  the  continuation  ?  Possibly  it  was  lost,  but, 
far  more  probably,  it  was  deliberately  suppressed,  since  it  must  have 
contained  not  a  little  that  was  far  from  palatable  to  certain  persons  in 
high  places. 

28* 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Navarre's  arrival  in  Paris  on  March  8  ;  but,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  she  did  not  reach  the  capital  until  May  28,  after 
having  made  a  short  stay  at  Chenonceaux  and  one  of 
some  length  at  Fontainebleau,  where  she  found  the 
King. 

Marguerite  met  with  a  very  gracious  reception  from 
Henri  III.,  who,  for  his  own  purposes,  was  extremely 
anxious  to  conciliate  her,  and  he  readily  gave  his  consent 
to  Catherine's  proposal  to  make  over  to  her  daughter 
the  duchy  of  Valois,  of  which  she  was  dowager,  and  the 
counties  of  Senlis,  Clermont,  and  Etampes,  in  exchange 
for  those  of  Quercy  and  Gaure.  This  addition  to  her 
appanage  considerably  increased  the  princess's  revenues 
and  importance. 

As  the  suite  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre  was  too  numerous 
to  be  accommodated  in  the  Louvre,  and  she  had  been 
compelled  to  dispose  of  the  Hotel  d'Anjou,  it  was  neces- 
sary for  her  to  find  a  residence,  and  she,  accordingly, 
purchased  for  28,000  ecus  the  house  of  the  Chancellor 
Birague,  situated  in  the  Rue  Culture-Sainte-Catherine. 

With  her  husband,  Marguerite  maintained  an  active 
correspondence,  and  showed  herself,  as  she  always  was, 
keenly  alive  to  his  political  interests.  "  We  shall  see 
the  King  at  Fontainebleau  in  four  days'  time,"  she  writes 
to  him  on  the  way  to  Paris;  "and  the  day  following, 
I  will  despatch  a  gentleman  to  acquaint  you  with  what 
has  happened  ;  and  five  or  six  days  later,  I  will  send 
another  to  inform  you  what,  after  the  first  greetings, 
which  are  commonly  marked  by  constraint  and  dis- 
simulation, I  shall  be  able  to  discover  in  respect  of  their 
wishes  concerning  us."  She  warns  him  that  the  King 
is  reported  to  be  much  displeased  with  the  conduct  of 
two  of  the  King  of  Navarre's  followers,  one  of  whom  had 

283 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

been  waging  a  little  war  on  his  own  account,  while  the 
other  had  Defused  to  surrender  a  town  which  the  Hugue- 
nots had  occupied  during  the  last  war.  Catherine  was 
urging  Henri  III.  to  visit  the  South,  in  order  to  re- 
establish order  there,  and  Marguerite  begs  her  husband 
to  set  matters  right  himself,  "  so  that  the  King  may  be 
satisfied  and  his  desire  to  come  thither  removed." 
In  another  letter,  written  shortly  after  her  arrival  in 
Paris,  she  points  out  that  he  might  greatly  strengthen 
his  position  were  he  to  visit  the  capital.  "  If  you  were 
here,"  she  writes,  "  you  would  be  the  man  on  whom 
both  sides  would  depend.  You  would  regain  the  servants 
whom  you  have  lost,  owing  to  the  length  of  these  troubles, 
and  would  acquire  more  of  them  in  a  week  than  you 
would  in  all  your  lifetime  in  Gascony."  But  nothing 
could  induce  Henri  to  venture  into  the  lion's  den  again. 

She  gives  him,  too,  all  the  news  of  the  Court.  "  M. 
de  Nemours  has  become  so  remarkably  stout  that  he  is 
quite  deformed  ;  M.  de  Guise  has  grown  thin,  and  seems 
much  aged.  .  .  .  The  King  has  been  hunting  for  three 
days,  not  without  wishing  that  you  were  there,  and  to 
a  concert  at  the  Louvre,  which  lasted  all  night.  If  I 
dared  to  tell  you  of  it,  you  would  abandon  agriculture 
and  Timon's  humour  to  come  among  men."  1 

But  this  good  understanding  between  husband  and 
wife  was  not  of  long  duration  ;  and  it  was  Fosseuse  who 
was  again  the  cause  of  the  rupture. 

Yielding  to  the  urgent  representations  of  Catherine 
and  of  the  pious  Queen,  the  latter  of  whom  was  in- 
expressibly shocked  at  seeing  a  lady  of  such  unenviable 
notoriety  in  attendance  upon  her  sister-in-law,  Mar- 
guerite had  dismissed  that  errant  damsel  from  her  service, 

1  Memoires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  (edit.  Guessard). 

284 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

although,  by  wayof  compensation,  she,  shortly  afterwards, 
arranged  for  her  a  very  advantageous  marriage  with 
Francois  de  Broc,  Baron  de  Cinq-Mars.  Henri,  on  learn- 
ing that  his  favourite  had  received  her  congt,  was  highly 
indignant,  and  despatched  Frontenac,  one  of  his  gentle- 
men, to  his  wife  to  acquaint  her  with  his  displeasure. 
Marguerite,  on  this  occasion,  was  unable  to  restrain 
her  feelings,  and,  in  answer  to  her  husband's  remon- 
strances, sent  the  following  spirited  reply  : 

MARGUERITE  to  the  KING  OF  NAVARRE. 

"  You  say  that  there  will  be  nothing  for  me  to  be 
ashamed  of  in  pleasing  you.  I  believe  it  also,  judging 
you  to  be  so  reasonable  that  you  will  not  command  me 
to  do  anything  which  may  be  unworthy  of  a  person  of 
my  quality ;  nor  which  affects  my  honour,  in  which 
you  have  too  much  interest.  And,  if  you  demand  that 
I  shall  keep  near  my  person  a  girl  whom  you,  in  the  opinion 
of  every  one,  have  made  a  mother,  you  will  find  that 
that  would  be  to  put  me  to  shame,  both  by  reason  of  the 
insult  to  which  you  subject  me,  and  on  account  of  the 
reputation  that  I  should  thereby  acquire.  You  write 
to  me  that,  in  order  to  close  the  mouths  of  the  King, 
the  Queens,  and  those  who  speak  to  me  about  it,  I  should 
tell  them  that  you  love  her,  and  that,  for  this  reason,  I 
love  her  too.  This  reason  would  be  a  good  one,  if  I 
were  speaking  of  one  of  your  servants,  whether  male  or 
female,  but  of  your  mistress !  If  I  had  been  born  in 
a  condition  unworthy  of  the  honour  of  being  your  wife, 
this  answer  would  not  be  an  unbecoming  one  for  me  ; 
but,  being  such  as  I  am,  it  would  be  very  unseemly. 
Also,  I  shall  hinder  myself  from  advancing  her  interests. 
I  have  suffered  what,  I  will  not  say  a  princess,  but  a 

285 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

simple  demoiselle l  does  not  suffer,  having  succoured 
her  [Fosseuse],  concealed  her  fault,  and  always  kept  her 
near  my  person.  If  you  do  not  call  that  being  desirous 
of  pleasing  you,  I  know  not  what  you  can  expect."  2 

This  admirable  letter  ought  to  have  convinced  the 
infatuated  King  that  he  had  gone  too  far,  and  drawn 
an  apology  from  him.  But,  unhappily,  Catherine  took 
upon  herself  to  interfere,  and  wrote  her  son-in-law  a 
sharp  reprimand,  which  deeply  offended  him  and  incensed 
him  still  further  against  his  wife. 

CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  to  the  KING  OF  NAVARRE. 

"...  You  are  not  the  first  husband,  young  and  with 
little  prudence  in  such  matters  ;  but  I  certainly  find 
you  the  first  and  the  only  one,  who,  after  an  affair  of 
this  nature,  holds  such  language  to  his  wife.  I  had  the 
honour  to  marry  the  King  [Henri  II.]  my  lord  and  your 
sovereign  .  .  .  and  when  Madame  de  Flemming  8  was 
with  child,  he  considered  it  very  fitting  that  she  should 
be  sent  away.  With  regard  to  Madame  de  Valentinois  * 
and  also  Madame  d'Etampes,  he  behaved  in  a  perfectly 
honourable  manner.  This  is  not  the  way  to  treat  women 

1  She  means  the  wife  of  an  ordinary  citizen.    The  wives  of  the 
bourgeoisie,  at  this  period,  did  not  take  the  titles  of  dame  or  madame, 
which  were  reserved  for  the  wives  of  the  nobility  or  daughters  of  noble 
parents  who  had  married  citizens.      They  were  called  demoiselle   or 
mademoiselle.     This  custom  prevailed  for  more  than  a  century  longer. 
Thus  we  find  the  mother  of  La  Bruycre  described  in  a  legal  document 
as  a  "  demoiselle  veuve"  while  La  Fontaine,  in  his  correspondence,  in- 
variably speaks  of  his  wife  as  "  mademoiselle" 

2  Me 'moires  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valois  (edit.  Guessard). 
8  The  mother  of  Henri  d'AngoulSme. 

4  Diane  dc  Poitiers, 

286 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

of  condition  and  of  so  distinguished  a  family,  and  to 
expose  them  to  the  insults  of  a  licentious  public,  for 
every  one  is  aware  of  the  child  whom  she  has  had  ;  and 
to  send  your  complaint  by  a  little  gallant,  presumptuous 
and  imprudent  to  have  accepted  such  a  command  from 
his  master  !  I  cannot  believe  that  it  comes  from  you. 
since  you  are  too  well-born  not  to  know  how  you  ought 
to  live  with  the  daughter  of  your  King,  and  the  sister  of 
him  who  commands  in  all  the  realm,  who,  moreover, 
honours  you  and  loves  you,  as  a  woman  of  condition 
ought  to  do.  And,  if  I  knew  her  to  be  different,  I  should 
not  wish  to  support  her  or  to  write  anything  to  make 
you  recognise  the  wrong  that  you  have  done  her.  .  .  . 
I  have  caused  this  pretty  fool  [Fosseuse]  to  be  sent  away, 
for,  so  long  as  I  live,  I  cannot  endure  to  see  anything  which 
may  hinder  or  diminish  the  affection  which  those  who 
are  so  near  to  me,  as  she  [Marguerite]  is,  ought  to  bear 
one  another ;  and  I  entreat  you  that,  after  this  fine 
messenger  of  a  Frontenac  has  said  the  worst  he  can  to 
estrange  you  and  your  wife,  to  consider  the  wrong  that 
you  have  done  her,  and  return  to  the  right  path."  * 

Hard  upon  this  new  rupture  with  her  husband  came 
a  fresh  source  of  chagrin  for  Marguerite.  In  seeing 
Chanvallon  once  more  and  in  resuming  possession  of 
this  fascinating  gallant,  she  had  believed  herself  secure 
against  any  infidelity  on  his  part.  Such,  however,  was 
not  the  case.  Whether  it  was  that  he  feared  the  resent- 
ment of  Henri  III.,  or  saw  in  his  liaison  with  the  Queen 
of  Navarre  an  obstacle  to  his  advancement  at  Court, 
Chanvallon  sought  to  free  himself,  by  taking  a  wife,  whose 

1  Biblioth^que  Nationale,  Coll.  Dupuy,  cited  by  La  Ferriare,  Trots 
amoureuses  an  XVI*.  tieck  :  Marguerite  de  Valoit. 

a87 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

rank  and  wealth  might  serve  as  a  stepping-stone  to  For- 
tune, and,  in  August  1582,  married  Catherine  de  la  Mark, 
daughter  of  Robert  de  la  Mark,  Due  de  Bouillon.  During 
her  visit  to  Bagneres-de-Bigorre,  Marguerite  had  herself 
proposed  to  give  him  a  wife,  "  a  widow,  beautiful,  an 
honest  woman,  with  an  income  of  30,000  livres  and 
200,000  livres  in  the  bank."  But  then  this  lady  had 
been  one  of  her  own  choosing,  who  could  be  trusted  to 
efface  herself  whenever  the  Queen  required,  and  her 
anger  and  mortification  at  Chanvallon  having  dared  to 
wed  without  consulting  her  knew  no  bounds.  "  There 
is  then  no  longer  justice  in  Heaven  nor  fidelity  on  earth," 
she  writes  to  him.  "  Triumph,  triumph  over  my  too 
ardent  love  !  Boast  of  having  deceived  me  ;  laugh  and 
mock  at  it  with  her,  concerning  whom  the  only  consola- 
tion that  I  receive,  is  that  her  lack  of  merit  will  be  the 
just  penalty  of  the  wrong  that  you  have  committed  .  .  . 
When  you  receive  this  letter,  the  last,  I  beg  you  to  return 
it  to  me,  since  I  do  not  desire  that  at  this  fine  interview, 
to  which  you  are  going  this  evening,  it  serves  for  a  topic 
of  conversation  to  the  father  and  the  daughter." 

The  total  failure  of  Anjou's  Flemish  enterprise  was 
perhaps  as  great  a  blow  to  Marguerite  as  the  defection 
of  her  lover.  Monsieur,  who  had  accepted  the  govern- 
ment of  the  States,  with  the  title  of  Duke  of  Brabant, 
had  been  waging  war  against  the  Spaniards  with  indiffer- 
ent success  throughout  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1582. 
Distrusted  by  the  States,  he  had  little  effective  power, 
and  this  and  his  jealousy  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  deter- 
mined him,  when  winter  caused  the  cessation  of  hostilities, 
to  make  a  coup  d'etat,  and  capture,  with  his  French  troops, 
the  chief  towns  of  Flanders.  At  Dunkerque,  Ostend, 

288 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  several  other  places  the  plan  was  successful.  But 
at  Antwerp,  where  the  prince  in  person  made  the  attempt, 
it  signally  failed.  When  his  troops,  some  four  thousand 
in  number,  entered  the  town,  they  found  themselves 
attacked  on  all  sides  by  the  infuriated  citizens,  and  nearly 
half  of  them  were  killed  in  the  streets  or  drowned  in  the 
Scheldt.  Anjou,  with  the  remainder,  retired  in  disgrace 
to  Termonde,  and  afterwards  to  Dunkerque,  whence 
he  returned  to  France  in  the  following  summer. 

The  news  of  "  la  folie  tfAnvers "  reached  Paris  on 
January  28,  1583,  and  created  general  indignation  and 
grief,  for  members  of  some  of  the  noblest  families  in 
France  were  amongst  the  slain.  "  Would  to  God  that 
you  had  died  young !  "  exclaimed  Catherine  bitterly, 
when  she  and  Anjou  met,  some  months  later.  "  You 
would  not  then  have  been  the  cause  of  the  death  of  so  many 
brave  gentlemen."  Henri  III.,  however,  secretly  rejoiced 
at  his  brother's  discomfiture,  since,  according  to  the  Vene- 
tian Ambassador,  he  feared  him  more,  once  he  should 
be  master  of  the  Netherlands,  than  he  feared  Philip  II. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  relations  between  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  and  Henri  III.  had  again  become  very  strained. 
Marguerite  had  refused  to  lend  herself  to  his  political 
schemes,  had  scoffed  at  the  ridiculous  mummeries,  where- 
by the  King  believed  that  he  was  making  atonement 
for  the  disorders  of  his  life,  and,  worst  of  all,  was  at 
daggers  drawn  with  his  two  chief  mignons,  d'Epernon1 
and  Joyeuae.2  The  princess,  whose  temper  had  perhaps 

1  Jean  Louis  de  Nogaret  de  la  Valette,  born  in  1554  ;  created  Due 
d'Epernon  in  1581.  He  played  an  important  part  under  the  Regency 
of  Marie  de'  Medici.  Died  in  1642. 

3  Anne  d'Arques,  born  in  1561  ;  created  Due  de  Joyeuse  in  1581  ; 
killed,  in  1587,  at  the  Battle  of  Coutras, 

289  -J 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

not  been  improved  by  Chanvallon's  defection,  indulged 
in  biting  sarcasms  at  the  expense  of  these  arrogant  young 
men,  who  retaliated  by  circulating  very  injurious  reports 
about  her  Majesty's  private  life,  and  doing  everything 
in  their  power  to  embitter  their  master  against  her. 

A  visit  which  the  King  paid  to  Mezieres,  in  June 
1583,  brought  about  a  momentary  truce.  But,  as 
ill-luck  would  have  it,  during  his  absence,  Chanvallon, 
who  had  fallen  into  disgrace  with  Anjou,  returned 
unexpectedly  to  Paris.  The  cause  of  his  disgrace  is  un- 
certain ;  some  writers  assert  that  he  had  betrayed  the 
duke's  confidence  ;  but,  if  we  are  to  believe  Varillas, 
the  reason  was  that  he  had  "  boasted  of  his  bonne  fortune 
with  one  of  the  greatest  ladies  of  the  kingdom."1  Any- 
way, to  Paris  he  came,  and  without  his  wife. 

Marguerite  no  sooner  beheld  her  faithless  lover  than 
all  her  passion  revived;  she  forgave  him  and  hastened  to 
resume  with  him  their  old  relations.  But  alas !  Chan- 
vallon proved  himself  wholly  unworthy  of  her  clemency  ; 
for,  after  a  week  or  two  of  bliss,  the  Queen's  old  rival, 
Madame  de  Sauve,  not  content  with  the  adoration  of 
both  d'Epernon  and  Guise,  conceived  a  fancy  to  subdue 
Chanvallon  likewise  ;  and  succeeded. 

Deeply  mortified,  the  Queen  determined  to  leave 
Paris,  and  return  to  Gascony  ;  but  funds  for  the  journey 
were  not  immediately  available,  and  she  was  compelled 
to  postpone  her  departure.  At  the  end  of  June,  she 
fell  ill,  and  her  illness  furnished  a  pretext  for  the  most 
damaging  reports.  "  The  Queen  of  Navarre  is  enceinte, 
or  suffering  from  the  dropsy,"  wrote  Busini,  the  Tuscan 
Ambassador  to  his  Court.* 

1  Histoire  de  Henri  III. 

2  Negotiations  diplomatiqua  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  466,  cited  by  La  Ferridre. 

290 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Henri  III.  returned  to  Paris.  Catherine,  who  always 
exerted  her  influence  to  prevent  scandals  in  the  Royal 
Family,  was  absent,  having  gone  to  Chaulnes,  in  Picardy, 
to  administer  reproaches  and  consolation  to  the  dis- 
comfited Anjou.  Marguerite,  conscious  of  the  danger 
which  threatened  her  and  Chanvallon,  determined  to 
send  the  gallant  away.  "  Please  God,"  she  writes  to 
him,  "  that  on  me  alone  this  storm  may  expend  itself. 
But  to  place  you  in  danger  !  Ah,  no,  my  life  ;  there  is 
no  suffering  so  cruel  to  which  I  would  not  prefer  to 
submit.  I  offer  you  a  conclusive  proof  of  it,  by  depriving 
myself  of  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you,  which  I  hold  to  be 
as  necessary  to  me  as  that  of  the  sun  to  the  spring 
flowers."  * 

From  this  letter,  it  is  evident  that,  in  spite  of  Chan- 
vallon's  infidelity,  Marguerite  had  not  had  sufficient 
strength  of  mind  to  break  off  her  relations  with  him. 

The  Queen  of  Navarre's  fears  were  soon  realised. 
Acquainted  with  the  injurious  reports  that  were  in 
circulation  about  his  sister,  Henri  III.  suborned  one  of 
Marguerite's  waiting-women,  who  furnished  his  Majesty 
with  a  full,  true,  and  particular  account  of  the  Chanvallon 
affair,  together  with  many  piquant  details  concerning 
his  predecessors  in  her  mistress's  affections.  The  King 
smiled  grimly  and  waited  for  a  favourable  opportunity 
of  making  use  of  the  knowledge  he  had  gained. 

An  unexpected  incident  precipitated  the  crisis.  In 
the  previous  May,  the  Due  de  Joyeuse  had  set  out  on  a 
journey  to  Italy.  His  object,  he  announced,  was  to 
discharge  a  vow  he  had  made  to  Our  Lady  of  Loretto, 
on  behalf  of  his  sick  wife,  and  to  keep  up  this  fiction, 
the  King  and  Queen  had  entrusted  him  with  gifts  to 

1  Mimoiret  et  lettra  dt  Marguerite  de  Valoit  (edit.  Guemrd). 

291 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

present  at  the  same  shrine,  in  their  names.  But  his  real 
goal  was  Rome,  where  he  had  been  charged,  by  Henri  III., 
with  some  very  important  negotiations  with  the  Holy 
See.  At  the  beginning  of  August,  the  King  wrote  a 
long  letter  to  his  favourite,  containing,  if  we  are  to  believe 
Varillas,  "  odious  things  about  his  sister's  conduct." 
But  this  epistle  the  duke  never  received,  for  the  courier 
who  bore  it,  had  not  proceeded  many  leagues  on  his 
journey,  when  he  was  attacked  by  four  masked  men,  who 
left  him  dead  on  the  road,  and  carried  off  his  Majesty's 
letter. 

This  outrage  was  commonly  attributed  to  agents  of 
the  Queen  of  Navarre,  though  in  all  probability,  unjustly. 
As  both  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  and  M.  Merki  point  out, 
the  correspondence  of  the  King  with  Joyeuse  was  of  far 
greater  interest  to  the  Guises  than  to  Marguerite  ;  and 
the  leaders  of  the  League  were  naturally  extremely 
anxious  to  learn  what  was  happening  at  Rome  ;*  while 
the  fact  that  Henri  III.,  who  was  on  his  way  with  Queen 
Louise  to  the  waters  of  Bourbon-Lancy,  immediately 
turned  back,  on  learning  what  had  occurred,  and  showed 
great  agitation,  would  appear  to  indicate  that  the  letter 
must  have  contained  something  of  much  greater  import- 
ance than  scandalous  gossip  about  his  sister.  However 
that  may  be,  the  King  affected  to  believe  the  rumour 
which  was  current,  and  made  it  the  pretext  for  a  scan- 
dalous scene. 

On  the  evening  of  August  8,  there  was  a  ball  at  the 
Louvre,  and,  as  Queen  Louise  was  at  Bourbon-Lancy, 
and  Catherine  in  Picardy,  the  King  begged  his  sister  to 

1  Busbecq,  the  Austrian  Ambassador,  in  a  letter  to  his  Court,  ascribes 
the  outrage  to  the  "  malcontents,"  by  which  he  presumably  means  the 
League. 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

do  the  honours.  Suspecting  nothing,  Marguerite  con- 
sented and  took  her  place  on  the  royal  dais.  But,  when 
the  gaiety  of  the  evening  was  at  its  height,  followed  by 
d'Epernon  and  several  other  favourites,  Henri  III. 
approached  the  throne  where  his  sister  was  seated,  and 
there,  before  the  whole  company,  and  in  a  voice  which 
could  be  heard  by  every  one  in  the  room,  he  upbraided 
her  with  her  amours  with  Chanvallon,  accused  her  of 
having  had  a  child  by  him,  and  enumerated  all  the  lovers 
whom  she  had  had  since  her  marriage,  "  naming  so  pre- 
cisely dates  and  places,"  says  the  Austrian  Ambassador, 
Busbecq,  "  that  he  seemed  to  have  been  a  witness  of  the 
incidents  of  which  he  spoke." 

Stupefied  with  horror  and  amazement,  the  unfortunate 
princess  listened,  silent  and  motionless,  unable  to  utter 
a  single  word  in  her  justification.  Her  malevolent 
brother,  however,  scarcely  gave  her  time  to  reply,  but 
terminated  his  denunciation  with  an  imperious  order 
to  her  to  quit  Paris,  and  "  deliver  the  Court  from  her 
contagious  presence." 

During  the  night,  a  number  of  masked  men  entered 
Chanvallon's  lodging,  and  ransacked  it  from  cellar  to 
attic.  They  had  orders  to  apprehend  that  gentleman, 
but,  warned  in  time,  he  had  fled  to  Beaumont,  and  taken 
refuge  in  the  house  of  his  cousin,  Achille  de  Harlay, 
President  of  the  Parlement. 

On  the  following  morning  (August  9),  a  coach  drawn 
by  four  horses  drew  up  before  the  Hotel  de  Birague. 
Dressed  in  a  plain  black  gown,  and  with  her  features 
concealed  by  a  mask,  Marguerite  entered  it,  accompanied 
by  two  of  her  confidantes,  Mesdames  de  Duras  and  de 
Bethune,  and  a  favourite  waiting-woman  named  Barbe, 
whose  mother  had  filled  the  post  of  nurse  to  the  princess. 

293 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Several  gentlemen  of  her  suite  and  a  few  servants  had 
orders  to  follow  her  on  horseback.  The  poor  Queen 
was  in  a  pitiable  state  of  agitation,  and,  as  she  turned  to 
bid  farewell  to  those  of  her  Household  who  remained 
behind,  she  remarked  that  she  was  as  unfortunate  as 
Marie  Stuart,  and  that  she  would  be  grateful  indeed  to 
any  one  who  would  have  the  courage  to  poison  her. 

It  was  Marguerite's  intention  to  proceed  to  the 
Chateau  of  Vendome,  which  belonged  to  Henri  of 
Navarre,  and  remain  there  until  she  had  ascertained 
what  kind  of  reception  she  was  likely  to  receive  at  Nerac, 
since  she  could  not  doubt  that  the  news  of  the  scene  at 
the  Louvre  would  very  soon  reach  her  husband's  ears. 
But  the  animosity  of  Henri  III  was  not  yet  satisfied. 
About  four  leagues  from  Paris,  between  Palaiseau  and 
Saint-Clair,  the  Queen's  coach  was  stopped  by  sixty 
archers  of  the  King's  guard,  under  one  Larchamp  de 
Grimonville,  who  roughly  tore  the  masks  from  the  faces 
of  her  Majesty  and  her  ladies.  "  Miserable  wretch  !  " 
exclaimed  the  outraged  princess,  "  do  you  dare  to  lift 
your  hand  against  the  sister  of  your  King  ?  "  "I  am 
acting  by  his  orders,"  replied  the  officer,  drily.  He 
then  proceeded  to  arrest  Mesdames  de  Bethune  and  de 
Duras,  the  Queen's  equerry,  secretary,  and  physician, 
and  several  other  members  of  her  company,  and  conducted 
the  prisoners  to  the  Chateau  of  Montargis,  where  they 
were  placed  in  separate  chambers.1 

The  following  day,  Marguerite's  attendants  were 
rery  closely  interrogated,  first,  by  a  magistrate  sent  by 
the  King,  and,  subsequently,  by  his  Majesty  himself  ;  his 
object  being  to  discover  what  truth  there  was  in  the 

1  There  are  several  versions  of  this  episode.  D'Aubign6  places  it  at 
the  Barriers  Saint-Jacques,  in  Paris,  and  L'Estoile  at  Palaiseau  itseK 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

report  which  he  had  affected  to  believe  that  their  mistress 
had  secretly  given  birth  to  a  child  by  Chanvallon,  with 
the  connivance  of  Mesdames  de  Bethune  and  de  Duras. 
The  two  ladies  in  question  were  subjected  to  an  especially 
rigorous  examination  by  the  King,  "  who  delighted  in 
doing  evil  "  ;  but,  to  his  intense  mortification,  they  per- 
sisted in  denying  the  accusation,  and  neither  threats  nor 
cajolery  could  wring  anything  from  them  to  incriminate 
the  Queen.  The  evidence  of  Marguerite's  other  attend- 
ants proved  equally  unsatisfactory,  from  his  Majesty's 
point  of  view ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
charge  was  nothing  but  a  malicious  slander,  started  and 
propagated  by  the  princess's  enemies.1 

The  news  of  the  indignity  inflicted  on  her  daughter 
threw  the  Queen-Mother  into  the  greatest  consternation, 
and  she  wrote  to  her  confidant,  Villeroy,  that  she  was 
"  beside  herself  with  affliction."  She  immediately  des- 
patched the  Bishop  of  Langres  to  expostulate  with  the 
King ;  and  Henri,  having  failed  to  discover  anything 
further,  liberated  the  prisoners,  and  permitted  Marguerite 
to  continue  her  journey,  having,  however,  first  insisted 
that  she  should  dismiss  Mesdames  de  Bethune  and  de 
Duras  from  her  service. 

This   unworthy   censor   of  his   sister's   morals   found 

1  "The  Queen  was  innocent  of  that  which  was  imputed  to  her," 
remarks  Brantome,  "  as  I  happen  to  know "  On  the  other  hand, 
Dupleix  declares  that  Marguerite  gave  birth  to  a  son  by  Chanvallon. 
"  He  is  still  living,"  continues  the  historian  ;  "  he  is  a  Capuchin  called 
Friar  Ange  ;  I  was  formerly  acquainted  with  him."  (Histoire  de  Henri  IV., 
p.  595.)  Apart  from  the  fact  that  Dupleix  is  quite  unworthy  of  belief 
where  Marguerite  is  concerned,  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  points  out  that 
this  Friar  Ange  must  have  been  born  some  years  before  the  intrigue  with 
Chanvallon  began,  since  in  1603  he  was  a  full-fledged  monk  and  con- 
fessor to  Henriette  d'Entragues,  Henri  IV.'s  mistress. 

295 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

himself  in  a  distinctly  embarrassing  position.  His 
hatred  of  Marguerite  had  led  him  to  support  a  charge 
which  could  not  be  upheld,  and,  in  so  doing,  to  offer  a 
serious  affront  to  her  husband,  whose  resentment  might 
assume  a  very  unpleasant  form ;  and  his  Majesty  had 
no  desire  to  have  another  "  Lovers'  War  "  on  his  hands 
at  that  moment.  He,  therefore,  resolved  to  forestall 
Marguerite's  complaints,  and  wrote  to  his  brother-in- 
law,  informing  him  that  the  scandalous  lives  led  by 
Mesdames  de  Bethune  and  de  Duras  had  obliged  him  to 
dismiss  them  from  the  Queen  of  Navarre's  service,  "  as 
most  pernicious  vermin,  not  to  be  endured  about  the 
person  of  a  princess." 

The  King  of  Navarre  was  hunting  at  Saint-Foix- 
sur-Durdogne  when  he  received  the  letter,  which  Henri 
III.,  with  characteristic  impertinence,  had  entrusted  to 
one  of  his  valets  of  the  Wardrobe.  Unaware  as  yet 
of  the  actual  facts,  he  replied,  thanking  his  Majesty, 
a  little  ironically,  for  his  solicitude  for  his  wife's  reputa- 
tion. "  The  rumours  of  the  evil  and  scandalous  lives 
of  Mesdames  de  Duras  and  de  Bethune,"  he  writes, 
"  reached  me  a  long  time  ago.  But  I  considered  that 
my  wife,  having  the  honour  to  be  near  your  Majesties, 
I  should  be  wronging  your  natural  goodness  were  I  to 
take  upon  myself  to  be  more  solicitous  from  a  distance 
than  your  Majesties  close  at  hand.  I  was  resolved 
that,  when  my  wife  should  set  out  on  her  journey 
to  return  to  me,  to  beg  her  to  get  rid  of  them  with 
as  little  scandal  as  possible.  I  am  extremely  anxious 
to  have  her  here ;  she  can  never  come  too  soon." 
But,  a  day  or  two  later,  the  truth  was  known,  and  very 

1  Lettres  missives  de  Henri   W.     La   Ferriere,  Trots   Amoureusei    au 
*  iiecle  :  Marguerite  de  Valois. 

296 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

unpalatable  it  was,  even  to  one  so  indifferent  to  his 
own  and  his  wife's  honour  as  the  King  of  Navarre ;  for 
the  affair  had  become  common  knowledge,  and  all  France 
was  debating  it,  while  the  foreign  Ambassadors  had  not 
failed  to  send  lengthy  accounts  to  their  respective 
Courts. 

Matters  were  further  complicated  by  a  second  letter 
from  Henri  III.,  in  which  he  begged  his  brother-in-law 
not  to  attach  any  importance  to  the  reports  which  had 
reached  him,  but  to  receive  his  wife  back,  as  a  most 
regrettable  mistake  had  been  committed,  and  the  charge 
against  her  had  been  found  to  be  false  and  calumnious. 

Uncertain  how  to  act,  the  King  of  Navarre,  on  the 
advice  of  his  councillors,  finally  decided  to  despatch 
the  brave  and  accomplished  Duplessis-Mornay  to  Henri 
III.,  to  demand  an  explanation.  The  "  Pope  of  the 
Huguenots,  "  as  the  Catholics  had  dubbed  Mornay, 
found  the  King  at  Lyons,  on  his  way  to  join  Queen  Louise 
at  the  waters  of  Bourbon-Lancy  ;  and,  on  being  admitted 
to  an  audience,  demanded,  in  the  name  of  his  master, 
the  reason  of  the  treatment  which  the  Queen  of  Navarre 
had  received.  "  It  is  an  affront,"  said  he,  "  which  no 
princess  of  her  rank  has  ever  before  received.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceal  it ;  the  incident  took  place,  in  the 
day  time,  on  a  high-road ;  all  Europe  is  discussing  it. 
The  King  of  Navarre  has  reason  to  fear  that  the  Queen 
his  wife  has  committed  some  very  criminal  act,  since  you 
yourself,  Sire,  whose  kindness  is  so  well  known,  have 
been  able  to  treat  thus  your  own  sister.  Of  what  then 
is  she  guilty  to  be  so  cruelly  humiliated  ?  What  action 
ought  her  husband  to  take  in  such  trying  circumstances  ?  " 

The  King,  evading  the  question,  sought  to  throw  the 
blame  on  Mesdames  de  Bethune  and  de  Duras,  whose 

297 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

conduct,  he  declared,  had  been  scandalous ;  but  Mornay 
stopped  him,  observing  coldly  :  "  I  am  not  here  to 
plead  their  cause.  The  King  of  Navarre  would  not 
send  an  Ambassador  on  such  a  mission,  and  I  respect 
myself  too  much  to  undertake  it.  The  question  at  issue 
concerns  the  Queen  his  wife.  If  she  has  deserved  the 
affront,  he  demands  justice  from  you  against  her,  as  the 
master  of  the  house,  the  father  of  the  family.  But,  if 
she  is  the  victim  of  false  reports,  he  begs  you  to  punish 
openly  those  who  have  calumniated  her." 

Henri  III.,  much  disconcerted,  declared  that  matters 
had  been  greatly  exaggerated,  and  had  not  passed  in 
the  way  the  King  of  Navarre  had  been  led  to  believe. 
But  Mornay  boldly  replied  that  there  could  be  no  possible 
question  in  regard  to  the  facts,  as  the  affront  had  taken 
place  in  broad  daylight  and  on  the  high-road.  "  Your 
Majesty,"  added  he,  "  has  done  either  too  much  or  too 
little  :  too  much,  if  no  fault  has  been  committed,  or  if 
it  be  a  venial  one ;  too  little,  if  the  fault  merited  such  a 
punishment." 

"  From  whom  do  you  obtain  all  these  mischievous 
reports  ?  "  inquired  the  King.  [And  Mornay  forthwith 
proceeded  to  adduce  evidence  which  showed  that  his 
master  was  but  too  well-informed. 

Henri,  completely  nonplussed,  fell  back  upon  the 
absence  of  the  Queen-Mother  and  Anjou.  Their  honour, 
he  declared,  was  as  much  concerned  as  his  own ;  it  was 
his  wish,  nay  his  duty,  to  consult  them  before  taking 
any  further  steps  in  the  matter.  "  That  will  entail  a 
considerable  delay,"  replied  Mornay ;  "  the  arrow  is  in 
the  wound ;  you  do  not  extract  it.  The  Queen  your 
sister  is  on  her  way  to  rejoin  the  King  her  husband. 
What  will  Christendom  say,  if  he  receives  her  thus 

298 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

besmirched  ?  "     "  What  can  it    say  ?  "    snapped  Henri, 
"  save  that  she  is  the  sister  of  your  King." 

Finally,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  Mornay,  his  Majesty 
offered  to  send  a  "  person  of  consideration  "  to  his  brother 
of  Navarre  with  a  satisfactory  explanation,  and  promised 
to  give  the  Ambassador  a  letter  in  his  own  hand  to  carry 
to  his  master.1 

Marguerite,  meanwhile,  was  at  Vendome,  where  her 
distress  of  mind  was  augmented  by  the  fact  that  she 
was  almost  entirely  without  resources.  From  Vendome 
she  wrote  to  her  mother  the  following  piteous  letter  : 

•THE  QUEEN  OF  NAVARRE  to  CATHERINE  DE  MEDICI. 

"  MADAME, — Since  my  unfortunate  destiny  has  brought 
me  to  such  misery  that  I  know  not  if  you  can  desire  the 
preservation  of  my  life  ;  at  least,  Madame,  I  am  able 
to  hope  that  you  desire  the  preservation  of  my  honour ; 
it  being  so  bound  up  with  yours,  and  with  that  of  all 
those  to  whom  I  have  the  honour  to  be  related,  that  no 
shame  can  touch  me  in  which  they  do  not  have  part. 
Which  causes  me,  Madame,  to  implore  you  very  humbly 
to  be  unwilling  to  permit  that  the  pretext  of  my  death 
be  used  at  the  expense  of  my  reputation,  and  to  be 
willing  to  do  so  much,  not  for  my  own  sake,  but  for  the 
sake  of  those  to  whom  I  am  so  nearly  related,  that  it 
may  please  you  that  I  have  some  lady  of  quality  and  worthy 
of  trust,  who  may  be  able,  while  I  am  alive,  to  bear  witness 
to  the  condition  in  which  I  am,  and  who,  after  my  death, 
may  be  present,  when  my  body  is  opened,  in  order  that 
she  may  be  able,  through  her  knowledge  of  this  last 

1  Mimoires  de  Duplessis-Mornay. 
299 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

injustice,  to  make  every  one  aware  of  the  wrong  which 
has  been  done.  I  do  not  say  this  in  order  to  hinder  the 
execution  of  my  enemies'  design,  and  it  is  unnecessary 
for  them  to  fear  that,  on  this  account,  a  pretext  for 
causing  my  death  will  fail  them.  If  I  receive  this  favour 
from  you,  I  will,  while  I  am  alive,  write  and  sign  every- 
thing that  will  be  required  of  me."  x 

Touched  by  her  daughter's  distress,  Catherine  sent 
her  200,000  livres,  which  enabled  Marguerite  to  continue 
her  journey.  From  Vendome,  she  proceeded,  by  easy 
stages,  to  Plessis-les-Tours,  thence  to  Poitiers,  and  the 
end  of  September  found  her  at  Cognac.  At  this  last 
town,  she  received  a  letter  from  her  husband,  forbidding 
her  to  enter  his  dominions,  until  a  full  and  satisfactory 
explanation  had  been  accorded  him  by  Henri  III.  The 
King  of  Navarre,  truth  to  tell,  was  by  no  means  anxious 
for  the  return  of  his  wife,  as  he  was  now  desperately 
enamoured  of  Diane  d'Andoins,  Comtesse  de  Gramont 
("  la  belle  Corisande  "),  widow  of  Henri  III.'s  mignon, 
who  had  gained  such  ascendency  over  his  Majesty  that 
she  was  commonly  reported  to  have  bewitched  him. 

However,  he  was  in  honour  bound  to  continue  to 
press  the  King  of  France  for  an  explanation,  and,  on 
Henri  III.'s  return  from  the  Bourbonnais,  sent  to  Saint- 
Germain-en-Laye  a  second  Ambassador,  in  the  person 
of  Agrippa  d'Aubigne.  But  this  bluff  warrior  only 
succeeded  in  making  matters  worse,  declaring  that  his 
master  absolutely  refused  to  receive  his  wife  until  the 
matter  was  cleared  up  and  justice  done.  The  King, 
exasperated  by  his  arrogance,  replied  with  threats,  to 
which  the  Huguenot  retorted  that  "  the  King  of  Navarre 

1  Imperial  Library,  St.  Petersburg,  published  by  La  Ferriere. 

300 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

would  not  sacrifice  his  honour  for  his  Majesty  or  any 
prince  living,  so  long  as  he  had  a  foot  of  steel  in  his  hand." 
And  when  Catherine,  anxious  to  cast  oil  upon  the 
troubled  waters,  promised  that  the  "  scoundrels  and 
robbers  "  who  had  insulted  her  daughter  should  be 
punished  by  death,  audaciously  observed  that  noble 
victims  were  required,  "  since  swine  were  not  sacrificed 
to  Diana."  D'Aubigne  appears  to  have  narrowly  escaped 
paying  dearly  for  his  bravado,  for  the  King's  mignons 
laid  an  ambush  for  him  on  his  return  journey,  but, 
warned  by  some  friends  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  he 
evaded  them  and  reached  the  Loire  in  safety. 

Nevertheless,  Henri  III.  was  anxious  to  settle  this 
miserable  affair,  if  this  could  be  effected  without  com- 
promising himself,  and,  in  the  middle  of  October  1583, 
on  the  advice  of  Catherine,  despatched  Pomponne  de 
Bellievre,1  one  of  his  most  prudent  councillors  to  Nerac, 
with  a  letter,  wherein  he  imperiously  commanded  his 
brother-in-law  to  receive  his  wife  immediately,  and 
declared  that  he  had  no  satisfaction  to  give  him,  since 
it  was  his  kingly  privilege  to  act  as  he  pleased  towards 
his  subjects.  At  the  same  time,  he  begged  him  not  to 
take  the  matter  so  much  to  heart.  "  Kings,"  he  wrote, 
"  are  often  liable  to  be  deceived  by  false  reports,  and 
calumny  has  not  always  respected  the  conduct  and  morals 
of  even  the  most  virtuous  princesses,  as,  for  example, 
the  Queen  your  mother.  You  cannot  be  ignorant  of 
all  the  evil  that  was  said  of  her."  "  His  Majesty," 
remarked  the  Bearnais  ironically  to  Bellievre,  "  does 
me  too  much  honour  by  all  these  letters.  In  the  first, 

1  Born  in  1512  ;  Councillor  of  State  1570  ;  Surintendant  des  finances 
1575  ;  President  of  the  Parlement  of  Paris  1576.  In  1599,  Henri  IV. 
appointed  him  Chancellor. 

301 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

he  calls  my  wife  a  wanton,  and  in  the  last,  tells  me  that 
I  am  the  son  of  one." 

Irritated  by  Henri  III.'s  refusal  of  justice,  the  King  of 
Navarre  had  already  taken  up  arms  and  had  seized  Mont- 
de-Marsan  ;  while  Matignon,  the  King's  lieutenant  in 
Guienne,  had  retaliated  by  reinforcing  the  garrisons  of 
Agen,  Condom,  Dax,  and  Bazas.  Bellievre,  therefore, 
came  at  an  inopportune  moment,  and  wrote  to  Marguerite 
that  "  all  the  words  that  the  King  of  Navarre  addressed 
to  him  were  complaints."  However,  another  emissary 
from  the  Court,  Charles  de  Birague,  one  of  those  supple 
Italians  with  whom  Catherine  loved  to  surround  herself, 
met  with  more  success,  and  Henri  was  induced  to  believe 
that  the  attitude  taken  up  by  the  King  of  France  was 
that  of  a  man  who  does  not  know  how  to  make  reparation, 
but  is  willing  to  confess  his  error.  His  best  friends,  too, 
counselled  accommodation,  and,  at  length,  he  consented 
to  see  Bellievre  again,  and  wrote  very  kindly  to  his  wife, 
who  was  now  at  Agen,  informing  her  that  he  did  not 
believe  a  word  of  the  charge  against  her,  and  that  he 
would  be  perfectly  willing  to  receive  her,  so  soon  as  he 
had  made  it  plain  to  every  one  that  he  was  not  acting 
under  compulsion.  "  That  ma  mie"  he  concludes, 
"  is  all  that  I  can  tell  you  at  present.  Were  it  not  for 
the  meddlers  who  have  troubled  our  affairs,  we  should 
have  the  pleasure  of  being  together  at  this  hour."  * 

But  the  final  solution  of  the  affair  was  still  some  distance 
off,  for  the  King  of  Navarre  reposed  but  little  trust  in 
the  pacific  intentions  of  his  royal  brother-in-law,  and 
until  he  had  received  a  definite  promise  that  the  garrisons 
which  had  been  placed  in  the  frontier  towns  should  be 
withdrawn,  so  that  it  might  not  be  supposed  that  he 

1  L'Estoile,  Journal  &  Henri  HI. 
JO* 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

was  receiving  his  wife  under  compulsion,  the  negotiations 
made  little  progress.  Pibrac,  whom  Marguerite,  feeling 
the  need  of  a  friend  in  Paris,  had  pardoned  and  received 
into  favour  again,  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to 
facilitate  matters,  and  delivered  before  Henri  III.  an 
eloquent  harangue,  in  which  he  recapitulated  all  the 
complaints  of  the  King  of  Navarre.  But  the  condition 
of  Monsieur,  who  was  slowly  dying  of  consumption 
at  Chateau-Thierry,  and  whose  death  would  leave  Henri 
of  Navarre  heir-presumptive  to  the  French  throne,  did 
more  than  anything  else  to  bring  about  a  settlement. 
Henri  III.  desired  a  reconciliation  with  his  brother-in- 
law,  hoping  to  prevail  upon  him  to  embrace  the  Catholic 
faith  again,  and  thus  avert  the  troubles  which  otherwise 
must  inevitably  follow  the  death  of  Anjou.  "  I  recognise 
your  master  as  my  sole  heir,"  said  he  to  Mornay,  who, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  spring  of  1583,  had  been  sent 
on  a  second  embassy  to  the  Court  of  France.  "  He  is 
a  prince  of  exalted  birth  and  good  parts.  I  have  always 
loved  him,  and  I  know  that  he  loves  me.  He  is  somewhat 
choleric  and  brusque  ;  but  good  at  bottom."  1 

Mornay  lost  no  time  in  informing  his  master  of  his 
Majesty's  words,  and  urged  him  strongly  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  his  wife.2  His  wise  counsels  prevailed,  and  at 
the  beginning  of  April  1583,  Marguerite,  who  was 
still  at  Agen,  received  an  intimation  from  her  husband 
that  he  was  prepared  to  receive  her 

1  Memoir es  de  D  uplessis-Mornay . 

2  He  added  some  excellent  advice  for  his  Majesty's  future  conduct. 
"The  eyes  of  all  are  fixed  on  you,"  he  writes  ;  "in  your  Household 
some  splendour   ought  to  be  seen  ;  in  your  Council,  dignity  ;  in  your 
person,  gravity  ;  in  your  serious  actions,  consistency  ;  in  even  the  least, 
justice.     The  love-affairs,  which  are  carried  on  so  openly,  and  to  which 
you  devote  so  much  time,  are  no  longer  seasonable.     It.  is  time,  Sire, 
for  you  to  make  love  to  all  Christendom,  and  especially  t    France." 

303 


CHAPTER    XXI 

Reunion  of  the  King  and  Queen  of  Navarre — Impressions  of 
Michel  de  la  Huguerye — Difficult  position  of  Marguerite  at 
Nerac — The  death  of  Monsieur  makes  Henri  of  Navarre  heir- 
presumptive  to  the  throne  of  France — Mission  of  the  Due 
d'Epernon  to  Gascony — Letter  of  Belhevre  to  Marguerite — 
The  King  of  Navarre  refuses  to  abjure  the  Protestant  faith — 
Treaty  of  Joinville — Henri  III.,  compelled  to  give  the  League 
his  countenance  and  support,  signs  the  Treaty  of  Nemours — 
Strained  relations  between  Marguerite  and  her  husband— A 
secretary  of  the  Queen  accused  of  attempting  to  poison  the 
King — Marguerite  retires  to  Agen — Letters  of  Bellievre  to 
Catherine  de'  Medici — The  Queen  of  Navarre  executes  a 
coup  £Etat  at  Agen  and  gets  possession  of  the  town — She 
embarks  upon  a  war  of  conquest,  but  meets  with  reverses — 
The  Agenais,  exasperated  by  her  exactions  and  tyranny,  appeal 
to  the  Mar£chal  de  Matignon  for  assistance — Revolt  of  the 
town  and  flight  of  Marguerite  to  Auvergne. 

THE  reunion  between  the  King  and  Queen  of  Navarre 
took  place  at  Porte-Sainte-Marie,  on  April  13,  1584. 
Marguerite  was  the  first  to  arrive  at  the  rendezvous, 
where  she  was  soon  joined  by  her  husband,  who  embraced 
her  without  saying  a  word.  They  then  entered  the 
house  at  which  the  Queen  was  staying,  mounted  to  a 
room  on  the  first  floor,  and  showed  themselves,  for  a  few 
moments,  at  a  window  to  the  people  gathered  below. 
Half  an  hour  later,  they  descended  ;  Marguerite  entered 
her  litter,  and  the  King  followed  her  on  horseback. 
"  Are  you  satisfied  with  me  ? "  inquired  Henri,  of 

304 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Charles  de  Birague,  who  had  accompanied  him  to  the 
interview.  "  I  am  always  satisfied  with  what  is  able  to 
please  your  Majesty,"  was  the  diplomatic  answer. 

Nerac  was  reached  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
and  until  supper-time,  the  reunited  pair  promenaded 
the  long  gallery  of  the  chateau.  No  one  overheard  what 
passed  between  them ;  but  Michel  de  la  Huguerye, 
a  follower  of  Conde,  who  had  been  despatched  by  that 
prince  on  a  mission  to  his  cousin,  relates  that  the  Queen 
was  "  bathed  incessantly  in  tears."  The  supper  which 
followed  was  a  dismal  meal  for  the  unfortunate  Marguerite, 
sitting,  with  tear-stained  face  and  quivering  lips,  next 
her  husband,  "  who,"  continues  the  chronicler,  "  carried 
on  I  know  not  what  frivolous  conversation  with  the 
gentlemen  about  him,  without  either  he  himself  or  any 
one  else  addressing  the  princess,  which  caused  me  to 
judge  that  he  had  received  her  back  under  compulsion." 
And  he  concludes  by  expressing  his  opinion  that  "  this 
reconciliation  would  not  be  of  long  duration,  and  that 
such  treatment  would  cause  this  princess  to  take  a 
new  part  in  the  trouble  which  was  about  to  rise."  1 

La  Huguerye  had  gauged  the  situation  but  too 
accurately.  Marguerite,  who  had  returned  to  Nerac 
as  a  pledge  of  peace,  resumed  nominally  her  former 
position  ;  but  she  did  not  find  there  the  same  considera- 
tion nor  the  same  security.  The  happy  days  when  she 
had  declared  the  Court  of  Nerac  so  pleasant  that  she  had 
no  reason  to  regret  that  of  France  were  gone,  never  to 
return  ;  nor  was  it  long  before  she  experienced  how 
futile  are  rehabilitations  such  as  hers.  She  could  not 
forget  the  unwillingness  of  her  husband  to  receive  her, 
the  bitter  humiliation  of  those  long  months  which  she 

1  Me  moires  de  Michel  de  la  Huguerye, 

305  u 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

had  spent  eating  out  her  heart  amid  the  discomfort  and 
monotony  of  dull  provincial  towns,  the  scorn  and  mockery 
of  all  France.  On  his  side,  the  King  of  Navarre,  careless 
and  good-natured  though  he  was,  where  morality  was 
concerned,  had  been  deeply  incensed  by  the  odious 
scandal  that  had  assailed  his  wife's  reputation,  by  the 
pressure  which  had  been  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to 
induce  him  to  reinstate  her  under  the  conjugal  roof, 
and  by  the  threats  into  which  his  resistance  had  provoked 
the  French  Court.  This  combination  of  circumstances 
constituted  a  false  position,  which  political  and  religious 
complications  helped  to  aggravate. 

On  June  II,  1584,  the  Due  d'Anjou  expired  at  Chateau- 
Thierry,  regretted  by  none,  save  his  sister  and,  possibly, 
by  his  mother.  His  death,  which  deprived  Marguerite 
of  her  only  support,  made  the  King  of  Navarre  heir- 
presumptive  to  the  French  crown,  and,  as  Henri  III. 
had,  for  some  time  past,  abandoned  all  hope  of  his  consort 
bearing  him  children,  the  question  of  the  succession  at 
once  became  of  paramount  importance.  But  the  acces- 
sion of  a  heretic  to  the  throne  was  repugnant  to  the 
whole  Catholic  population,  and  was  certain  to  be  violently 
opposed  by  a  considerable  section  of  it.  The  intimate 
connection  of  the  State  and  the  orthodox  Church  was 
held  to  be  a  fundamental  law  of  the  monarchy ;  it  was 
impossible  to  depart  from  it  without  shaking  the  social 
edifice  to  its  very  foundations,  overthrowing  all  traditions, 
and  outraging  the  public  conscience.  Even  men  of 
moderate  views,  who  were  willing  enough  that  the 
Huguenots  should  be  tolerated,  were  alarmed  at  the 
prospect  of  their  domination. 

Very  intelligent,  whenever  he  could  contrive  to  free 
himself  for  a  time  from  his  idle  and  voluptuous  habits, 

306 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Henri  III.  had  foreseen  this,  and,  in  the  middle  of  May, 
that  is  to  say,  about  three  weeks  before  Monsieur's  death, 
had  despatched  the  Due  d'Epernon  to  the  King  of  Navarre, 
"  bearing  him  letters,  in  which  he  admonished,  exhorted, 
and  entreated  him,  seeing  that  the  life  of  the  Due  d'Anjou, 
his  brother,  was  despaired  of,  and  that  the  news  of  his 
death  was  daily  expected,  to  come  to  Court  and  go  to 
Mass,  because  he  desired  to  recognise  him  as  his  true 
heir  and  successor,  and  to  give  him  such  rank  and  dignity 
near  his  person  as  his  qualification  of  brother-in-law 
and  heir  to  the  throne  deserved.  There  was  a  report 
that  he  was  sent  with  200,000  ecus,  which  the  King  had 
given  him  to  defray  the  cost  of  his  journey ;  and  he 
went  accompanied  by  more  than  one  hundred  gentlemen, 
to  the  majority  of  whom  the  King  gave  sums  of  one, 
two,  or  three  hundred  ecus,  to  render  him  good  and 
faithful  service  and  make  a  suitable  appearance."  1 

Henri  of  Navarre  received  the  "  demi-roi "  of  France 
and  his  sumptuous  retinue,  at  Pamiers,  with  every  mark 
of  honour  and  esteem,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  Henri 
III.,  but  to  the  profound  annoyance  of  Marguerite. 
The  princess  could  not  forget  the  campaign  of  calumny 
which  this  arrogant  mignon  had  carried  on  against  her 
during  her  fatal  visit  to  Paris,  and,  especially,  that  when 
she  had  been  forced  to  submit  to  her  brother's  insults 
at  the  Louvre,  he  had  been  by  his  master's  side.  The 
King  of  Navarre,  after  their  first  interview,  had  invited 
the  duke  to  visit  him  at  Nerac  ;  but  Marguerite  warned 
her  husband  that  "  she  intended  to  absent  herself,  so 
as  not  to  disturb  the  festivities."  Advised  of  her  inten- 
tion, Catherine  wrote  to  her  daughter  to  remonstrate, 
and  charged  Bellievre,  who  had  accompanied  d'Epernon 
1  L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri  III. 
307 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

to  Gascony,  to  transmit  her  letter,  and  to  use  every  per- 
suasion to  bring  the  princess  to  a  different  frame  of  mind. 
The  Minister  obeyed,  and,  in  despatching  her  Majesty's 
letter,  wrote  as  follows  : 

"  BELLIEVRE  to  the  QUEEN  OF  NAVARRE.  - 

"  MADAME, — It  is,  and  will  be  to  me  all  my  life,  a 
cause  of  extreme  regret  to  write  to  you  on  an  occasion 
which  is  to  me,  and  to  all  the  servants  of  this  crown, 
so  difficult  to  support.  You  have  lost  your  brother, 
whom  you  loved  with  a  unique  affection,  but  God  has 
preserved  your  mother,  to  whom  you  are  dearer  than  her 
own  life.  She  has  commanded  me  to  submit  to  you 
the  letter  which  she  has  written  you  concerning  your 
refusal  to  receive  M.  d'Epernon.  If  the  King  your 
brother,  in  sending  him,  had  not  commanded  him  to 
visit  you,  it  would  have  appeared  to  this  people  that  he 
did  not  intend  you  to  occupy  the  place  in  his  affection 
which  all  honest  men  desire  him  to  give  you.  I  write  you, 
by  command  of  your  mother,  to  beg  you  to  conform  to 
her  instructions.  Give  me  orders  to  inform  the  Due 
d'Epernon  that  you  are  prepared  to  give  him  a  cordial 
reception." 1 

The  King  of  Navarre,  too,  besought  his  wife  to  forget 
her  resentment,  "  for  love  of  him,"  and  assist  at 
d'Epernon's  official  reception,  to  which  he  attached  great 
importance,  and,  tired  of  argument,  Marguerite  eventually 
yielded.  "  Ah  well !  Monsieur,"  said  she,  "  since  it 
pleases  you  to  command  me,  I  will  remain  and  will  make 
him  welcome,  out  of  the  respect  and  obedience  I  owe 
you."  But  she  added  :  "  The  day  on  which  he  arrives, 

1  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  Lettres  de  Bcllievre,  published  by  La  Ferricre. 

308 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  so  long  as  he  remains,  I  shall  dress  myself  in  garments 
which  I  shall  never  wear  again  :  those  of  dissimulation 
and  hypocrisy."  She  kept  her  word,  and  the  duke's 
visit  passed  off  without  any  unpleasantness,  to  the  great 
astonishment  of  the  curious,  who  maliciously  scrutinised 
the  countenances  of  the  Queen  and  her  guest. 

D'Epernon,  however,  effected  little.  The  Catholics 
about  Henri  of  Navarre,  and  two  or  three  of  his  more 
moderate  Protestant  advisers,  had  been,  for  some  time 
past,  urging  him  to  remove  by  his  conversion  the  only 
obstacle  to  his  recognition  as  heir-presumptive  to  the 
throne.  But  the  great  mass  of  the  Huguenots  were  bitterly 
opposed  to  such  a  recantation,  and,  lightly  though  he 
held  by  his  creed,  he  felt  that  the  moment  had  not  yet 
come  when  he  could  afford  to  offend  them.  He  feared, 
too,  the  versatility  of  Henri  III.,  and  knew  that  the 
Guises'  zeal  for  the  Old  Faith  was  but  a  cloak  for  their 
ambition.  As  a  Catholic,  he  would  have  only  partisans ; 
as  chief  of  the  Calvinists,  he  could  command  armies  of 
devoted  followers.  And  so  d'Epernon  was  answered  with 
protestations  of  gratitude  and  loyalty.  The  King  of 
Navarre,  he  was  informed,  was  indeed  deeply  sensible 
of  his  Majesty's  goodness,  but  "  a  man's  religion  could  not 
be  put  on  and  off  like  his  shirt,"  and,  though  he  was 
perfectly  willing  to  receive  instruction  or  to  submit  to 
the  decision  of  a  free  and  universal  council,  he  could 
not  see  his  way  to  accept  the  invitation  to  Court,  and, 
atill  less,  to  go  straightway  to  Mass.  In  other  matters, 
he  held  himself  entirely  at  his  Majesty's  orders,  and  was 
prepared  to  come  to  his  assistance  with  all  the  forces  of  his 
party,  in  the;  event  of  the  King  breaking  with  the  League. 
The  fact  that  the  legitimate  heir  to  the  throne  was  a 
heretic,  made  the  renewal  of  the  civil  war  inevitable, 

309 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  on  the  death  of  Anjou,  the  Guises  and  the  League 
at  once  began  to  organise  their  forces  for  the  coming 
struggle.  The  ultra-Catholic  party,  who  had  long  lost 
all  confidence  in  their  vacillating  sovereign,  turned 
towards  Henri  de  Lorraine,  as  to  their  champion  and 
true  leader;  and  the  King  spoke  the  truth  when  he 
declared  that,  though  he  himself  wore  the  crown,  it  was 
the  Due  de  Guise  who  reigned  over  the  hearts  of  his 
subjects.  Philip  II.,  fearful  that  Henri  III.  might 
unite  with  Elizabeth  in  intervention  in  the  Netherlands, 
spared  no  pains  in  urging  the  Guisards  to  take  action, 
and  on  January  16,  1585,  a  formal  treaty  was  signed  at 
Joinville,  by  the  Dues  de  Guise  and  de  Mayenne,  and  by 
representatives  of  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon  and  the 
King  of  Spain,  whereby  it  was  agreed  that,  in  the  event 
of  the  death  of  Henri  III.,  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon 
should  be  proclaimed  King,  and  that  the  contracting 
parties  should  use  every  endeavour  to  extirpate  heresy 
in  both  France  and  the  Netherlands. 

No  means  were  left  untried  by  the  League  to  in- 
timidate Henri  III.  into  giving  their  proceedings  his 
countenance  and  support.  The  printing-presses  of  the 
capital  rained  pamphlets,  libels,  and  manifestoes,  in 
which  the  King  was  held  up  to  odium  as  a  second  Herod, 
the  very  incarnation  of  all  the  corruption  of  the  age. 
In  spite  of  his  devotion,  his  pilgrimages,  his  penances 
and  his  confraternities,  his  orthodoxy  was  suspected, 
and  the  parochial  clergy,  the  friars,  and  the  Jesuits, 
vied  with  one  another  in  denouncing  him  as  a  traitor 
to  the  Faith,  a  blasphemer,  a  hypocrite,  and  an  evil 
liver."  » 

1  L'Estoile  reports  that  the  preachers  accused  him  of  leading  in  his 
penitential  processions  "  hypocrites  and  atheists  "  who,  on  Good  Friday 

310 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

The  Pope  gave  the  League  his  solemn  approval,  -and, 
encouraged  by  this,  the  confederates,  on  March  30,  1585, 
published  their  manifesto,  wherein  they  declared  that  they 
were  prepared  to  draw  the  sword  to  restore  the  dignity 
and  unity  of  the  Church,  to  secure  to  the  nobility  their 
ancient  privileges,  to  expel  unworthy  favourites  and 
advisers  from  the  Court,  to  prevent  further  troubles  by 
settling  the  succession,  and  to  provide  for  regular  meet- 
ings of  the  States-General.  And  until  these  objects 
should  be  attained,  they  swore  to  hold  together,  and 
persevere,  "  until  they  should  be  heaped  together  upon 
one  another  in  the  tomb  reserved  for  the  last  Frenchman 
fallen  in  the  service  of  his  God  and  country." 

For  some  weeks,  Henri  III.,  exasperated  by  such 
insolent  defiance  of  his  authority,  declined  to  yield, 
while  the  Leaguers  occupied  several  towns,  the  Press 
continued  to  pour  forth  pamphlets,  and  a  hundred 
preachers  lavished  upon  him  their  choicest  invective. 
But,  counselled  by  Catherine,  who  had  not  grown  less 
pusillanimous  with  age,1  he  eventually  gave  way,  and,  on 
July  15,  1585,  signed  the  Treaty  of  Nemours,  which 
marked  the  triumph  of  the  Guises  and  the  "  Holy  Union," 
and  was,  for  himself,  a  virtual  abdication.2 

1582,  had  partaken  of  a  hearty  meal,  to  refresh  themselves  after  their 
exertions.  He  was  also  accused  of  indulging  in  blasphemous  remarks 
concerning  an  image  of  Our  Lord,  and  of  visiting  convents,  in  order  to 
make  love  to  the  nuns. 

1  Catherine  seems  to  have  made  up  her  mind  that  Henri  III.  would 
not  live  long,  and  that  she  would  survive  him,  though  in  the  latter  ex- 
pectation  she   was   disappointed.     In  the  event  of  his  death,   it  would 
appear  to  have  been  her  intention  to  support  the  claim  of  the  Marquis 
de  Pont-a-Mousson,  son  of  the   Duke  of  Lorraine   and   her  daughter 
Claude,  and  to  govern  through  him. 

2  By  the  Treaty  of  Nemours,  Henri  III.   interdicted  throughout  his> 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

While  these  momentous  events  were  happening,  the 
position  of  Marguerite  at  Nerac  was  becoming  increas- 
ingly difficult.  She  had  derived  no  advantage  from  her 
surrender  to  her  husband's  wishes  on  the  occasion  of 
d'Epernon's  visit,  and  continued  to  remain  isolated  in 
the  midst  of  a  Court,  of  which  she  was  Queen  only  in 
name.  So  long  as  his  wife  had  been  of  use  to  him  in 
his  political  schemes,  the  King  of  Navarre  had  shown 
her  at  least  those  outward  marks  of  respect  and  con- 
sideration to  which  her  rank  entitled  her.  But  now 
she  had  lost  her  credit,  and  could  no  longer  serve  as  an 
intermediary  between  him  and  the  French  Court ; 
nay,  more,  he  had  come  to  regard  her  in  the  light  of 
a  possible  rival,  for  there  was  a  party  in  the  nation, 
which,  too  orthodox  to  accept  a  heretic  sovereign  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  too  fervently  Royalist  to  desire  a 
change  of  dynasty,  meditated,  in  the  event  of  Henri  III.'s 
death,  putting  Marguerite  forward  as  claimant  to  the 
throne,  in  defiance  of  the  Salic  Law.1 

In  consequence,  Henri  began  to  neglect  her  entirely, 

realm  any  other  religion  save  the  Catholic,  on  pain  of  death,  and  en- 
joined the  same  penalty  on  all  Protestant  ministers  who  should  not  quit 
the  country  within  one  month,  while  all  other  Huguenots  were  to 
abjure  within  six.  War  was  to  be  declared  on  all  those  who,  at  the 
expiration  of  this  period,  had  not  made  their  submission,  and  the  con- 
duct of  the  war  entrusted  to  the  chiefs  of  the  League.  It  is  said  that 
when  the  King  of  Navarre  learned  that  Henri  III.  had  surrendered  to 
the  League,  he  remained  for  a  long  while  in  thought,  with  his  chin 
resting  on  his  hand,  and  that  when  at  last  he  roused  himself  from  his 
reverie,  his  beard  had  turned  grey. 

1  M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  who,  however,  does  not  give  his  authority, 
asserts  that,  previous  to  her  forced  reconciliation  with  her  husband, 
Philip  II.  had  offered  Marguerite  an  asylum  in  Spain,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  supporting  her  claim  to  the  throne.  But  it  seems  scarcely  prob- 
able that  Philip,  whose  daughters  by  Elisabeth  de  Valois,  the  Infanta 
Isabella,  had,  if  the  Salic  Law  were  to  be  violated,  superior  claims  to 
Marguerite's,  would  have  looked  further  for  a  candidate. 

312 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

passing  nearly  all  his  time  at  Pau  with  the  Comtesse  de 
Gramont,  and  paying  only  brief  and  infrequent  visits 
to  N£rac.  La  belle  Corisande,  too,  seems  to  have  lost 
no  opportunity  of  sowing  dissension  between  the  royal 
pair,  and  the  breach  grew  wider  and  wider. 

At  length  matters  came  to  such  a  pass  that  each  party 
believed,  or  affected  to  believe,  that  the  other  cherished 
the  most  sinister  designs,  and  was  only  awaiting  a  favourable 
opportunity  to  put  them  into  execution.  Marguerite 
imagined  that  she  had  everything  to  fear  from  the  ascen- 
dency of  the  Comtesse  de  Gramont,  and  declared  that 
there  was  a  plot  to  carry  her  off  and  retain  her  captive 
at  Pau.  On  his  side,  Henri  caused  a  man  named  Ferrand, 
who  was,  or  had  been  until  very  recently,  one  of  the 
Queen's  secretaries,  to  be  arrested,  on  a  charge  of  attempt- 
ing to  poison  him,1  though  it  subsequently  transpired 
that  he  had  done  nothing  worse  than  carry  on  a  very 
active  propaganda  on  behalf  of  the  Guises.  Nevertheless, 
before  his  innocence  of  the  criminal  charge  was  estab- 
lished, Henri,  urged  on  by  the  Comtesse  de  Gramont, 
seems  to  have  seriously  contemplated  repudiating  his 
wife,  on  the  ground  that  she  had  been  an  accomplice 
of  Ferrand,  and  took  the  advice  of  his  Council  on  the 
matter.  If  we  are  to  believe  d'Aubigne,  he  went  even 
further  than  this,  and  deliberated  whether  she  could 
not  be  brought  to  trial  and  executed.  D'Aubigne 
takes  great  credit  to  himself  for  having  dissuaded  the 
King  from  such  a  step,  having  regard  to  the  hostility 
which  had  always  existed  between  him  and  the  Queen. 

1  An  attempt  to  poison  Henri  had  certainly  been  made  about  this 
time.  Under  date  March  6,  1585,  the  Austrian  Ambassador,  Busbecq, 
writes  to  his  Court :  "  A  villain  has  endeavoured  to  poison  the  King  of 
Navarre  ;  but  either  because  the  poison  was  not  sufficiently  virulent,  or 
because  the  prince's  constitution  was  too  strong,  the  venom  did  not 
take  effect.  The  wretch  attempted  to  kill  himself  with  a  pistol." 

3'3 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

An  open  rupture  between  the  ill-assorted  couple  was 
now  inevitable ;  and  Marguerite  determined  to  quit 
Nerac,  which,  had  become  as  intolerable  to  her  as  it  had 
once  been  agreeable,  and  to  seek  an  asylum  in  the  estates 
of  her  appanage  which  bordered  on  the  dominions  of 
her  husband.  It  was  her  intention  to  maintain  herself 
there,  with  the  support  of  the  League,  as  a  kind  of  in- 
dependent sovereign,  and  set  both  her  husband  and  her 
brother  at  defiance.  Accordingly,  about  the  middle  of 
March,  she  requested  the  King  of  Navarre's  permission 
to  spend  Holy  Week  at  Agen.  Suspecting  nothing 
and  glad  of  a  momentary  truce,  Henri  readily  consented. 
"  That  is  a  good  plan,  ma  mie"  said  he,  ironically  "  Go 
and  pray  to  God  for  me." 

Agen,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  town  in  which 
Marguerite  had  spent  the  latter  part  of  the  time  between 
her  banishment  from  the  French  Court  and  her  return 
to  Nerac.  During  her  stay,  she  had  made  herself  very 
popular  with  the  inhabitants,  the  great  majority  of  whom 
were  zealous  Catholics,  by  her  liberality,  and  still  more 
by  having  obtained  the  removal  of  the  governor,  a  certain 
d'Oraison,  who  held  the  town  for  Henri  III.,  and  had  used 
his  position  to  rob  and  oppress  the  citizens. 

Without  being  a  stronghold,  Agen  was  far  from  an 
easy  place  to  invest,  being  protected,  on  the  South,  by 
the  Garonne,  and,  on  the  East,  by  ravines,  and  defended 
by  stout  mediaeval  ramparts  and  towers,  and  by  earth- 
works and  gabions  at  its  more  exposed  points.  More- 
over, since  the  withdrawal  of  d'Oraison  and  his  troops, 
the  townspeople,  who  lived  in  constant  dread  of  being 
surprised  by  the  King  of  Navarre,  had  formed  themselves 
into  a  civic  guard,  and  made  every  preparation  for  a 
vigorous  defence.1 

1  M.  Charles  Merki,  La  Reine  M argot  et  la  fin  des  Palais,  p.  319. 

3H 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Marguerite  arrived  at  Agen  on  March  19,  1585, 
accompanied  by  a  few  of  her  ladies  and  two  or  three 
gentlemen  of  her  suite,  and  took  up  her  residence  at  the 
house  of  a  wealthy  widow  named  Camberfort,  whose 
husband  had  been  one  of  the  principal  citizens.  The 
rest  of  her  Household  joined  her  the  same  evening,  and 
on  the  morrow  and  following  days,  the  Catholic  gentry 
of  the  neighbourhood  flocked  into  the  town,  with  the 
result  that  the  Queen  soon  found  herself  surrounded  by 
a  little  Court. 

Her  arrival  excited  no  surprise  among  the  good  folk 
of  Agen,  for  the  ill-feeling  between  her  and  the  King  of 
Navarre  was  common  knowledge,  and  they  thought  it 
only  natural  that  she  should  desire  to  escape  from  a 
husband  who  was  not  only  a  heretic,  but  a  notorious 
evil-liver.  Marguerite,  too,  was  popular ;  she  was 
very  regular  in  the  performance  of  her  devotions,  dis- 
tributed alms  with  a  lavish  hand,  spent  money  freely, 
and  seemed  likely  to  make  their  town  quite  a  gay  and 
fashionable  resort.  They  welcomed  her  with  open 
arms. 

The  French  Court,  at  first,  was  under  the  impression 
that  the  Queen  of  Navarre's  retirement  to  Agen  was 
merely  a  measure  of  precaution,  due  to  the  fear  with 
which  the  influence  of  the  Comtesse  de  Gramont  had 
inspired  her,  and  Bellievre  was  of  the  same  opinion. 
"  I  have  not  failed  to  speak  to  M.  de  Clervant,"  he  writes 
to  Catherine,  on  April  18,"  of  the  wrong  that  the  King  of 
Navarre  is  committing  in  preferring  the  friendship  of 
the  countess  [de  Gramont]  to  that  of  his  wife,  who  has 
been  constrained  to  return  to  Agen,  to  protect  herself 
from  the  countess,  who  is  plotting  against  her  life." 
But,  some  days  later,  he  began  to  grow  suspicious,  and 

3'5 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

wrote  again,  advising  the  Queen-Mother  to  beg  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine  to  dissuade  the  Guises  from  lending 
assistance  to  the  Queen  of  Navarre  in  a  war  which,  he 
very  much  feared,  she  was  about  to  undertake  contrary 
to  the  wishes  of  the  King.1 

This  warning,  however,  came  too  late,  for  Marguerite 
had  already  despatched  her  secretary,  Choisnin,  with  a 
letter  and  secret  instructions  for  the  Due  de  Guise. 
Choisnin  gave  the  duke  the  letter,  but  kept  the  instruc- 
tions, which,  as  we  shall  see,  he  made  use  of  later. 

For  some  weeks,  nothing  of  importance  occurred  at 
Agen.  Marguerite  continued  to  win  golden  opinions 
from  the  townspeople  by  her  piety,  liberality,  and 
charming  manners ;  and  when  she  represented  to  the 
consuls  that  she  desired  to  form  a  guard,  in  order  to 
secure  her  person  against  any  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  King  of  Navarre,  they  allowed  her  to  organise  two 
companies  of  men-at-arms,  which  she  placed  under  the 
command  of  two  of  her  most  devoted  followers,  the  Sieurs 
d'Aubiac  and  Ligardes.  Her  party,  too,  was  being 
constantly  augmented  by  the  arrival  of  Catholic  gentle- 
men and  their  retainers  from  the  surrounding  country, 
and  by  the  middle  of  May,  she  found  herself  strong 
enough  to  attempt  the  coup  d'Jtat  she  had  long  been 
meditating. 

On  May  15,  she  convoked,  at  the  episcopal  palace,  a 
meeting,  at  which  were  present  the  bishop,  the  prior 
of  the  Convent  of  Saint-Caprasy,  the  consuls,  the  officers 
of  the  civic  guard,  and  all  the  principal  citizens,  and 
informed  them  that  the  Marechal  de  Matignon,  the 
King's  lieutenant  in  Guienne,  was  conspiring  against 

1  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  Lettres  de  Bellievre,  published  by  La 
Ferriere. 

316 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

her ;  that  she  had  much  to  fear  from  the  enmity  of  her 
husband,  and  that,  as  war  was  on  the  point  of  breaking 
out,  she  must  request  them  to  hand  over  to  her  the  keys 
of  the  town  and  the  citadel. 

The  consuls  feebly  protested,  declaring  that  the  town 
was  strong  enough  to  defend  itself,  and  that  the  Queen 
was  in  perfect  security.  But  Marguerite  rejoined  that 
she  was  the  mistress  of  the  district ;  that  the  Agenais 
was  her  appanage,  and  that  she  intended  to  govern  it 
henceforth  as  she  deemed  necessary.  The  citizens  gazed 
at  one  another  in  dismay  ;  but  a  glance  out  of  the  window 
revealed  the  fact  that  the  square  in  front  of  the  palace 
was  full  of  soldiers,  and  that  her  Majesty  intended  to 
resort  to  force,  if  persuasion  failed.  They,  therefore, 
decided  to  yield,  handed  over  the  keys,  and  took  the 
oath  of  fealty,  which  Marguerite  caused  to  be  adminis- 
tered to  them  before  they  separated.  The  rest  of  the 
townspeople,  intimidated  or  indifferent,  offered  no 
opposition,  and  the  Queen's  authority  was  established 
without  any  disturbance.  Once  mistress  of  the  town, 
Marguerite  immediately  replaced  the  civic  guard  by  her 
own  troops.  Her  partisans  flocked  to  her  from  all  sides, 
and  in  a  few  days  she  had  quite  a  little  army  assembled 
in  and  around  Agen.  Among  those  who  came  to  offer 
her  their  services  was  Lignerac,1  Governor  of  Aurillac 
and  Bailiff  of  Upper  Auvergne,  who  arrived  at  the  head 
of  a  body  of  cavalry  which  he  had  raised  in  Quercy. 
To  him  the  Queen  of  Navarre  entrusted  the  command  of 

1  Frai^ois  Robert  de  Lignerac,  Seigneur  de  Pleaux.  He  was  a  warm 
partisan  of  the  League,  and  during  the  siege  of  La  Fere,  in  1596,  was 
charged  by  Mayenne  to  carry  his  proposals  to  Henri  IV.  He  made  his 
peace  with  the  King  at  the  Treaty  of  Folembray  and  served  him  with 
distinction. 

317 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

her  troops,  while  the  Vicomte  de  Du  Ras,  husband  of  the 
confidante  whom  Henri  III.  had  compelled  her  to  dis- 
miss from  her  service,  was  charged  with  the  conduct  of 
political  matters.  Nor  was  it  long  before  his  wife  arrived 
upon  the  scene,  accompanied  by  her  friend,  Madame  de 
Bethune,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  assume  the  position 
of  Prime  Minister  to  her  royal  mistress. 

Henri  III.  and  the  Queen-Mother  were  furious  when 
news  of  Marguerite's  escapade  reached  them.  I  per- 
ceive," wrote  Catherine,  "  that  God  has  left  me  this 
creature  for  the  punishment  of  my  sins,  by  the  afflictions, 
which  every  day  she  occasions  me ;  she  is  my  scourge 
in  this  world.  I  assure  you  that  I  am  so  afflicted  that 
I  know  what  remedy  to  seek."  l  Henri  III.,  on  his  side, 
sent  orders  to  Matignon  to  make  war  upon  his  adventu- 
rous sister  and  ravage  her  possessions ;  but  the  marshal 
preferred  to  stir  up  disaffection  among  her  partisans 
before  having  recourse  to  arms. 

The  King  of  Navarre,  on  the  other  hand,  is  reported 
to  have  been  much  amused  at  his  consort's  proceedings, 
and  made  jokes  about  her  with  the  Comtesse  de  Gramont. 
Nevertheless,  he  was  fully  alive  to  the  danger  of  allowing 
her  a  free  hand  in  the  Agenais  and  surrounding  districts, 
and  he  determined  to  crush  her  before  she  had  time  to 
become  really  formidable. 

Meanwhile,  Marguerite,  far  from  satisfied  with  her 
easy  success  at  Agen,  had  embarked  upon  a  war  of  con- 
quest. She  had  decided,  that,  in  order  to  secure  her 
independence,  she  must  compel  not  only  Agen  but  the 
whole  of  the  Agenais  and  the  Armagnac  to  acknowledge 
her  authority.  But  outside  Agen,  the  Huguenots  pre- 
dominated, and  were  very  far  from  inclined  to  tamely 

2  Catherine  to  Bellievre,  June  15,  1585. 
318 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

submit  to  her  rule ;    and  the  success  of  her  campaign 
did  not  answer  her  expectations. 

At  first,  however,  Fortune  seemed  to  favour  her  arms. 
In  July,  she  surprised  Tonneins,  a  town  situated  on  the 
Garonne,  and  placed  a  garrison  there.  But  her  success 
was  short-lived  ;  for  her  husband  promptly  marched  upon 
the  town,  and  drove  out  the  Queen's  troops,  with  heavy 
loss. 

Impatient  to  repair  this  check,  Marguerite  made  an 
attempt  upon  Villeneuve-d'Agen,  leading  her  troops 
in  person,  if  we  are  to  believe  Mezeray.  This  town 
was  divided  into  two  parts  by  the  River  Lot.  The 
Queen's  forces  succeeded  in  occupying  that  situated 
on  the  left  bank,  but  deferred  their  assault  on  the  rest 
of  the  town  till  the  following  day.  At  daybreak,  the 
citizens  sent  out  a  number  of  men  furnished  with  trum- 
pets, who  posted  themselves  on  the  Perigord  road  and 
rent  the  air  with  martial  strains.  The  besiegers,  in  the 
belief  that  the  King  of  Navarre  was  advancing  to  the 
succour  of  the  town — a  report  to  that  effect  had  already 
been  spread  by  some  men  who  had  joined  them  during 
the  night,  representing  themselves  to  be  deserters — 
immediately  evacuated  the  part  already  in  their  hands 
and  retreated  in  confusion  to  Agen,  harassed  all  the  way 
by  the  townspeople,  who  had  sallied  out  in  pursuit. 

Attempts  upon  Valence  d'Agen  and  Saint-Mazard, 
a  small  town  of  the  Armagnac,  met  with  no  better 
success ;  while  three  companies  of  men-at-arms,  who, 
on  the  advice  of  Duras,  had  been  sent  into  Beam  to 
foment  a  rising  in  the  Queen's  favour,  were  attacked 
by  Henri  of  Navarre  and  annihilated. 

Disheartened  by  these  reverses  and  fearing  to  be  herself 
attacked,  either  by  her  husband  or  by  Matignon,  or  possibly 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

by  both  in  conjunction,  since  they  had,  for  the  nonce, 
laid  aside  their  own  quarrels,  in  order  to  checkmate  the 
adventurous  princess,  Marguerite,  towards  the  end  of 
August,  reluctantly  abandoned  aggressive  warfare,  and 
shut  herself  up  in  Agen,  there  to  await  the  assistance  she 
was  expecting  from  the  League.  But  of  the  six  months' 
respite  granted  the  Huguenots  by  the  Treaty  of  Nemours 
only  one  had  passed,  and  until  the  full  term  had  expired, 
the  Leaguers  were  very  unlikely  to  take  the  field.  The 
question  was  whether  she  could  maintain  herself  at 
Agen  until  the  inevitable  war  began,  and  the  Guises 
were  at  liberty  to  come  to  her  aid.  Unfortunately  for 
Marguerite,  it  was  not  men  so  much  as  money  of  which 
she  stood  in  need.  The  garrison,  strong  and  ably  com- 
manded, was  quite  capable  of  defending  the  town  for 
some  months,  even  against  the  combined  forces  of  the 
King  of  Navarre  and  Matignon.  But  she  sadly  needed 
money,  to  pay  the  soldiers  and  for  the  expenses  of  her 
Court,  which  her  accounts  for  the  year  15  85  show  numbered 
no  less  than  235  persons,  exclusive  of  the  pages.1  Money 
had  been  promised  by  Spain,  but  it  did  not  arrive,  and  it 
was  to  no  purpose  that  the  Due  de  Guise  entreated 
Philip  II.  to  send  assistance  to  the  Queen  without  delay, 
"  in  order  that  she  whom  we  have  established  as  an 
obstacle  to  her  husband,  may  not  be  abandoned  by  her 
people." 2  Philip  was  evidently  of  opinion  that,  in 
granting  the  League  a  subsidy  of  a  million  crowns  he 
had  done  enough  for  one  year. 

At  her  wits'  end  for  money,  Marguerite  was  ill-advised 
enough  to  listen  to  the  counsels  of  her  intimates,  of  whom 
Madame  de  Duras  was  the  guiding  spirit,  and  levy  addi- 

1  M.  Charles  Merki,  La  Reine  Margot  et  la  Jin  des  Valois,  p.  328. 
3  Archives  Nationales,  published  by  La  Ferriere. 

320 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

tional  taxes  on  the  townspeople.  This  aroused  great 
irritation  amongst  all  classes,  which  was  increased  by 
the  drastic  measures  adopted  to  enforce  payment,  those 
who  refused  to  contribute  what  was  demanded  being 
punished  by  having  soldiers  billeted  on  them,  imprison- 
ment, or  the  sale  of  their  goods.  The  plague,  which 
that  year  ravaged  nearly  the  whole  of  the  South  of  France, 
broke  out  at  Agen,  and  destroyed  in  six  months  over 
fifteen  hundred  persons.  A  number  of  the  wealthier 
citizens  entreated  the  Queen  to  permit  them  to  depart 
with  their  families  from  the  stricken  town ;  but  this 
permission  was  refused  them,  at  the  instigation  of  Mar- 
guerite's advisers,  who  pointed  out  that  the  withdrawal 
of  so  many  of  the  principal  citizens  would  materially 
weaken  her  cause.  But  the  exasperation  of  the  Agenais 
reached  its  height,  when  the  Queen  determined  to  build 
a  second  citadel  overlooking  the  Garonne,  in  order  to 
strengthen  the  defences  of  the  town  and,  at  the  same 
time,  to  enable  her  to  defend  herself  against  her  subjects, 
should  occasion  arise.  For  this  purpose,  she  forthwith 
began  to  demolish  a  number  of  the  best  houses  in  the 
town,  and  in  a  few  days  upwards  of  fifty  were  levelled 
with  the  ground,  vague  promises  of  compensation  at 
some  future  time  being  all  that  their  luckless  owners 
received  in  return  for  the  destruction  of  their  homes. 

Ruined,  plundered,  and  oppressed,  the  citizens  sighed 
for  their  former  liberty,  and  turned  willing  ears  to  the 
agents  of  Matignon,  who  had  been  busily  intriguing  in 
the  town  for  some  time  past.  In  response  to  a  deputa- 
tion which  waited  upon  him  at  Bordeaux,  the  marshal  sent 
a  curious  document,  which  is  still  preserved  in  the 
Archives  of  Agen,  authorising  the  citizens  "  to  capture 
and  seize  the  forts,  drive  out  and  expel,  by  force  of  arms, 

321  x 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

if  necessary,  the  captains,  soldiers,  and  all  men  of  war 
who  were  there,  and  give  him  admission  to  the  town,  to 
hold  it  in  obedience  to  his  Majesty."  And  the  document 
concludes  with  an  injunction,  which  sounds  somewhat 
ironical  under  the  circumstances,  that  in  everything 
they  might  do,  they  should  "  treat  the  Queen  of  Navarre, 
her  ladies,  and  maids-of-honour  with  the  honour,  respect, 
and  very  humble  service  which  was  their  due." 

In  the  early  morning  of  September  25,  the  citizens 
rose  in  arms,  seized  one  of  the  gates,  and  admitted  a 
strong  force,  which  Matignon  (who,  mindful  of  the  fate 
of  his  predecessor,  Biron,  sacrificed  to  the  Queen  of 
Navarre's  resentment,  did  not  care  to  appear  personally 
in  the  affair)  had  despatched  to  their  assistance,  under 
the  command  of  one  of  his  officers,  Etienne  de  Nort. 
The  garrison,  surprised  and  outnumbered,  fought  bravely 
enough,  but  were  eventually  overpowered,  and  scattered 
in  all  directions,  pursued  by  the  infuriated  townspeople. 
Marguerite  herself  escaped  capture,  thanks  to  Lignerac, 
who,  seeing  that  all  was  lost,  hastened  to  her  house  and 
compelled  her  to  mount  behind  him,  while  one  of  his 
officers  carried  off  Madame  de  Duras  in  similar  fashion. 
They  were  accompanied  by  a  part  of  the  Queen's  entour- 
age^ about  eighty  gentlemen,  and  a  body  of  Lignerac's 
men-at-arms,  and  made  their  way  out  of  the  town 
without  encountering  any  opposition. 

It  had  been  arranged  that,  in  the  event  of  the  Queen 
of  Navarre  being  compelled  to  quit  Agen,  she  should 
make  her  way  into  the  viscounty  of  Carlat — in  Upper 
Auvergne — which  formed,  like  the  Agenais,  part  of  her 
appanage,  and  seek  safety  at  the  Chateau  of  Carlat,  which 
was  then  held  by  a  brother  of  Lignerac,  Robert  Gilbert, 
Seigneur  de  Marses  or  Marce.  Thither  the  fugitives 

322 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

directed  their  course,  though  not  with  the  extraordinary 
precipitation  described  by  some  chroniclers,  since  Mar- 
guerite's account-books  show  that  they  occupied  six 
days  in  covering  a  distance  of  some  forty  leagues. 

However,  the  journey  was  not  altogether  uneventful, 
as,  some  distance  from  Agen,  they  found  their  progress 
barred  by  a  strong  body  of  arquebusiers,  whom  Matignon 
had  placed  there  to  intercept  them  ;  and  it  was  only  after 
a  sharp  skirmish,  in  which  several  men  fell,  that  they 
succeeded  in  cutting  their  way  through.  On  the  frontier 
of  Auvergne,  between  Entragues  and  Montsalvy,  the 
Queen  was  met  by  Gilbert  de  Marses,  at  the  head  of 
five  hundred  gentlemen  and  men-at-arms,  who  escorted 
her  to  Carht,  where  she  arrived  on  Monday,  September 
30,  1585. 


3*3 


CHAPTER   XXII 

Marguerite  at  the  Chateau  of  Carlat — Dishonesty  and  inso- 
lence of  her  secretary,  Choisnin,  whom  she  dismisses  from  her 
service — In  revenge,  he  reveals  to  Henri  III.  her  negotiations 
with  the  Due  de  Guise — Illness  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre — 
Her  situation  at  Carlat  little  better  than  that  of  a  prisoner — 
Her  relations  with  d'Aubiac — A  tragic  episode  in  her  Majesty's 
bed-chamber — Marguerite,  finding  herself  no  longer  in  security 
at  Carlat,  removes  to  the  Chateau  of  Ibois — She  is  arrested  by 
the  Marquis  de  Canillac,  acting  under  the  orders  of  Henri  III. 
— Letters  of  the  King  to  Villeroy — Execution  of  d'Aubiac — 
Canillac  conducts  Marguerite  to  the  Chateau  of  Usson,  where 
she  "  makes  her  gaoler  her  captive  " — Sinister  designs  attributed 
to  Henri  III.  and  Catherine  in  regard  to  the  Queen  of  Navarre 
— Canillac  joins  the  League  and  delivers  the  chateau  to  Mar- 
guerite— Her  life  at  Usson — Her  Memoires — Her  financial 
embarrassments. 

THE  Chateau  of  Carlat  was  one  of  the  most  ancient 
fortresses  in  France,  and  traced  its  history  back  to  the 
time  of  Clovis,  who,  according  to  a  local  tradition,  had 
once  vainly  besieged  it.  It  was  of  immense  size  and 
strength,  situated  on  a  plateau  environed  by  precipices, 
which,  says  the  author  of  the  Divorce  satyrique,  "  gave 
it  more  the  appearance  of  a  robber's  den  than  the  resi- 
dence of  a  Queen."  Several  illustrious  personages  had 
at  different  periods  in  its  history  resided  there,  among 
them,  Jacques  d'Armagnac,  Due  de  Nemours,  executed 
for  high  treason  under  Louis  XL,  the  Duchesse  Anne 
de  Beaujeu,  and  Susanne  de  Montpensier,  her  daughter. 

324 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

The  chateau  was  nominally  Marguerite's  property,  but 
during  the  Wars  of  Religion  it  seems  to  have  been 
occupied  by  whoever  was  strong  enough  to  seize  and 
defend  it.  Thus,  shortly  before  the  Queen  of  Navarre's 
arrival  in  Auvergne,  it  had  been  held  by  a  Huguenot 
chief,  a  certain  La  Peyre-Teule,  who  had  been  expelled 
by  Gilbert  de  Marses,  acting  presumably  under  Mar- 
guerite's orders.  The  princess  had  decided  to  take 
refuge  at  Carlat,  because  it  was  situated  in  her  appanage, 
and  she  counted  on  the  assistance  of  the  Catholic  gentry 
of  the  province.  A  movement  in  her  favour  was  success- 
ful, and  she  entered  Carlat  as  a  sovereign. 

If  we  are  to  believe  the  pamphleteers  of  the  time, 
and  the  writers  who  have  followed  them,  Marguerite 
arrived  at  Carlat,  "  without  her  State  bed,  without 
money,  and  without  even  a  change  of  linen,"  l  and  des- 
patched Duras  into  Spain,  to  solicit  help  from  Philip  II. 
But  although,  in  her  hurried  flight  from  Agen,  she  had 
been  compelled  to  leave  behind  her  the  greater  part 
of  her  Household,  together  with  all  her  coaches,  litters, 
furniture,  jewellery,  plate,  and  so  forth,  the  Agenais 
made  no  attempt  to  detain  either  her  servants  or  her 
property,  and  her  account-books  for  1585  show  that 
by  December  4,  everything  had  arrived — even  the  State 
bed.2 

Her  treasurer,  Charpentier,  and  her  comptroller, 
Francois  Rousselet,  were  among  the  last  of  her  Household 
to  reach  Carlat,  and,  during  their  absence,  their  duties 
were  discharged  by  the  secretary,  Choisnin,  whom,  it 
will  be  remembered,  Marguerite  had  despatched  to  the 

1  Divorce  satyrique. 

3  An  entry  shows  that  the  Queen  paid  24  6cus  to  the  Sieur  Victor, 
who  had  brought  it  from  Miossac  to  Carlat. 

3*5 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Due  de  Guise,  shortly  after  her  arrival  at  Agen,  and 
who  had  kept  the  secret  instructions  which  his  mistress 
had  given  him  for  the  duke.  When,  at  length,  the 
treasurer  and  comptroller  put  in  an  appearance,  Choisnin 
presented  his  accounts  and  declared  that  he  had  dis- 
bursed on  behalf  of  the  Queen  and  her  Household  between 
14,000  and  15,000  ecus  in  six  weeks !  Marguerite  was 
highly  indignant,  as  well  she  might  be,  and  her  anger 
was  increased  when  the  unabashed  Choisnin  demanded 
an  exorbitant  sum  for  his  services.  The  Queen  flatly 
refused  to  pay  it,  upon  which  Choisnin  behaved  in  a 
most  offensive  manner,  and  addressed  to  his  mistress 
a  pasquinade,  "  the  most  disgusting  and  villainous  that 
ever  was  seen."  For  this,  he  was  dismissed  from  her 
service  and  expelled  from  the  chateau,  after  first  receiv- 
ing a  sound  flogging  at  the  hands  of  some  of  her  gentle- 
men. He  departed,  "  vowing  to  leave  nothing  undone 
to  ruin  the  Queen,"  and  was  as  good  as  his  word,  since 
he  set  off  for  Paris,  and  placed  the  secret  instructions  for 
Guise  in  the  hands  of  Henri  III. 

Marguerite  was,  for  the  time  being,  in  safety  at  Carlat, 
but  she  was  sadly  in  need  of  money.  She  endeavoured 
to  procure  a  loan  from  a  Florentine  banker,  who  had 
a  banking-house  at  Lyons,  on  the  security  of  a  portion 
of  her  jewellery ;  but  the  Italian  shamefully  abused  her 
confidence.  She  subsequently  parted  with  some  valuable 
jewels  to  Lignerac,  to  cover  an  advance  of  10,000  livres 
which  he  had  made  her. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1586,  she  fell  ill,  and  her  malady 
would  appear  to  have  caused  her  people  considerable 
anxiety,  since  she  was  attended  by  doctors  from  Moulins, 
Aurillac,  Villefranche-en-Rouergue,  and  Murat,  as  well 
as  by  her  own  physicians.  In  May,  however,  she  had 

326 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

recovered,  and  was  able  to  visit  several  of  the  neighbour- 
ing nobility  and  to  attend  a  mountaineers'  fe1  te,  organised 
by  Lignerac  in  her  honour. 

Meanwhile,  she  had  made  numerous  changes  in  her 
Household,  and  had  taken  several  of  the  gentry  of 
Auvergne  into  her  service.  She  had  also  quarrelled 
with  the  Vicomte  de  Duras,  who  had  departed  in  high 
dudgeon.  The  cause  of  their  quarrel  is  uncertain,  but, 
very  probably,  Duras  had  taken  exception  to  the  position 
in  which  the  Queen  had  allowed  herself  to  be  placed, 
for,  though  treated  ostensibly  as  a  sovereign,  she  was, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of 
Lignerac  and  Marses.  The  former  had  been  appointed 
Superintendent  of  the  Queen's  Household,  while  the 
latter  commanded  in  the  chateau,  and  without  their 
consent  and  that  of  another  adventurous  noble,  Jean 
de  Rive  or  de  Rieu,  civil  and  criminal  lieutenant  of  the 
district,  she  did  nothing,  and  was  merely  the  instrument 
of  their  ambition. 

Marguerite  had,  however,  bestowed  her  friendship  and 
confidence, if  not  her  love,  on  a  fourth  person,  a  young  man 
named  d'Aubiac,  who,  as  we  have  mentioned,  had  been 
given  the  command  of  one  of  the  companies  of  men-at- 
arms  which  she  had  organised  at  Agen,  and  with  whose 
assistance  she  had  secured  possession  of  the  town.  Who 
this  person  really  was  is  a  matter  of  dispute.  According 
to  one  account,  he  was  a  certain  Jean  de  Larte  de  Galart, 
second  son  of  Antoine  de  Galart,  Seigneur  d'Aubiac  ; 
while  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  asserts  that  he  was  a  son  of 
Begot  de  Roquemaurel,  Seigneur  d'Aubiat,  a  member 
of  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  illustrious  families  of 
Auvergne,  and  a  relative  of  the  Due  d'Albany,  uncle  of 
Catherine  de'  Medici.  There  is  a  similar  difference  of 

327 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

opinion  as  to  his  personal  appearance ;  for,  whereas  the 
Divorce  satyrique  describes  him  as  having  "  red  hair, 
freckled  skin,  and  a  rubicund  nose,"  the  Tuscan  Ambassa- 
dor, Cavriana,  speaks  of  him  as  "  young  and  handsome," 
though  audacious  and  indiscreet.1 

Whatever  his  social  position  and  appearance  may  have 
been,  he  seems  to  have  fallen  violently  in  love  with  the 
Queen  of  Navarre,  though  the  author  is  probably  roman- 
cing when  he  declares  that,  on  beholding  her  for  the  first 
time,  at  Agen,  the  enamoured  young  man  exclaimed  : 
"  Ah !  the  admirable  creature !  If  I  were  fortunate 
enough  to  find  favour  in  her  eyes,  I  should  not  regret  my 
life,  were  I  to  lose  it  an  hour  afterwards !  "  These 
words,  the  writer  tells  us,  were  reported  to  Marguerite, 
who,  far  from  being  offended  at  them,  gave  him  the  com- 
mand of  one  of  the  companies  of  men-at-arms,  and 
subsequently  made  him  her  equerry.  Whether  he  was 
her  lover,  as  several  writers  assert,  is  difficult  to  say — 
M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  of  course,  will  not  allow  that  he  was 
anything  but  a  humble  worshipper — but,  any  way,  he 
was  one  of  the  most  devoted  of  her  partisans  at  this 
period,  and  enjoyed  her  full  confidence. 

In  the  early  autumn  of  1586,  the  situation  of  the 
Queen  of  Navarre  at  Carlat  began  to  grow  very  unpleasant. 
The  commandant  of  the  chateau,  Gilbert  de  Marses, 
died,2  and  violent  and  acrimonious  disputes  immediately 

1  Negotiations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  669. 

*  The  Divorce  satyrique  accuses  Marguerite  of  having  caused  Marses  to 
be  poisoned,  partly  in  order  to  revenge  herself  on  his  wife,  who  had  dis- 
covered the  nature  of  the  relations  existing  between  her  and  d'Aubiac, 
and  partly  to  make  herself  mistress  of  the  chateau.  But  no  attention 
need  be  paid  to  so  foul  an  accusation  made  by  a  writer  of  this  class,  and, 
in  all  probability,  Marses  fell  a  victim  to  the  plague,  which  was  then 
ravaging  Auvergne. 

328 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

began  between  d'Aubiac  and  Lignerac  on  the  subject 
of  the  military  authority.  Then  a  most  tragic  event 
occurred.  Lignerac,  who,  it  would  appear,  possessed 
or,  at  any  rate,  aspired  to  the  Queen's  favours,  took 
umbrage  at  the  interest  which  she  was  taking  in  "  the 
son  of  her  apothecary,"  and  finding  him  one  morning 
in  her  Majesty's  chamber,  was  seized  with  so  violent 
an  access  of  jealousy,  that  he  poniarded  the  hapless  youth 
to  death  before  the  eyes  of  the  horrified  princess.1 

Apart  from  these  annoyances,  Margueite  no  longer 
felt  herself  in  security  at  Carlat.  Henri  III.,  more  than 
ever  incensed  against  her  by  the  proofs  of  her  dealings 
with  the  Guises  which  the  treacherous  Choisnin  had 
placed  in  his  hands,  had  sent  orders  to  her  to  leave  the 
chateau,  threatening  her,  in  case  of  refusal,  with  "  the 
most  rigorous  punishment  " ;  and  the  arrival  of  Joyeuse, 
at  the  head  of  a  Royalist  army,  on  the  frontier  of  Auvergne 
had  caused  many  of  her  supporters  among  the  Catholic 
gentry  of  the  province  to  desert  her  cause.  She  seems, 
indeed,  to  have  been  in  hourly  dread  lest  the  chateau 
should  be  attacked  and  taken,  and  she  herself  delivered 
over  to  her  detested  brother.  Accordingly,  she  resolved 
to  leave  Carlat,  and  take  refuge  at  the  Chateau  of  Ibois, 
a  league  from  Issoire,  in  which  Catherine  had  offered 
her  an  asylum,  shortly  after  her  flight  from  Agen.  Thither 
she  set  out  on  October  14, 1586,  accompanied  by  d'Aubiac, 
Robert  du  Cambon,  another  of  Lignerac's  brothers,  and 
a  part  of  her  Household.  A  certain  Seigneur  de  Chateau- 

1  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  characterises  this  episode  as  an  "  atrociously 
ridiculous  story."  But  it  was  sufficiently  well  authenticated  for  the 
Spanish  Ambassador,  Mendoza,  to  report  it  to  Philip  II.,  in  a  letter 
which  is  preserved  in  the  Archives  Nationales,  and  has  been  published 
by  M.  Philippe  Lauzun  in  his  Itineraire  raisonnc  de  Marguerite  de  Valo'u 
en  Gascogne. 

329 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

neuf,  whom  she  had  admitted  to  her  confidence,  had 
promised  to  convey  the  Queen  and  her  suite  across  the 
Allier,  and  to  furnish  her  with  an  escort  as  far  as  Ibois. 
But  he  failed  to  keep  his  promise,  and  the  party  had  to 
cross  the  river  by  a  ford,  where  Marguerite  had  a  very 
narrow  escape  of  being  drowned.  They  reached  Ibois 
in  safety  on  October  16,  and  were  duly  admitted  by  the 
governor  of  the  chateau,  Louis  de  la  Souchere.  Scarcely, 
however,  had  they  arrived,  when  a  troop  of  horse  was 
observed  approaching.  It  proved  to  be  commanded 
by  the  Marquis  de  Canillac,  Governor  of  the  Chateau 
of  Usson,  and  one  of  Joyeuse's  lieutenants.1  Chateauneuf 
had  betrayed  them  ! 

Canillac  peremptorily  demanded  admission  to  the 
chateau,  and  the  Queen,  recognising  the  futility  of 
resistance,  ordered  the  gates  to  be  opened,  having  first 
concealed  d'Aubiac,  in  the  chimney,  according  to  Du 
Vair,  or  "  between  the  walls,"  according  to  an  un- 
published manuscript  cited  by  M.  Charles  Merki.  The 
marquis  informed  Marguerite  that  he  had  orders  from 
the  King  to  arrest  her,  and  then  demanded  the  where- 
abouts of  d'Aubiac,  concerning  whom,  it  appeared,  he 
had  special  instructions.  Her  Majesty's  reply  not  being 
satisfactory,  he  ordered  a  search  to  be  made,  and  the 
hapless  d'Aubiac' s  hiding-place  was  speedily  discovered. 

The  same  day,  Canillac  despatched  a  gentleman  to 
Henri  III.,  to  inform  him  of  his  sister's  arrest,  and  to  ask 
for  further  instructions.  In  reply,  his  Majesty  wrote 
to  Villeroy  as  follows : 

1  Jean  Timoleon  de  Beaufort-Montboissier,  Vicomte  de  Lamothe, 
Marquis  de  Canillac.  He  was  the  son  of  Marguerite's  gouvernante  and  dame 
tThonneur,  Madame  de  Curton,  by  her  first  marriage  with  Jacques  de 
Beaufort,  Marquis  de  Canillac. 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

HENRI   III.  to  VILLEROY. 

"  Tell  Canillac  not  to  budge  until  we  have  made  the 
necessary  arrangements.  Let  him  convey  her  to  the 
Chateau  of  Usson.  Let,  from  this  hour,  her  estates 
and  pensions  be  sequestrated,  in  order  to  reimburse 
the  marquis  for  his  charge  of  her.  As  for  her  women  and 
male  attendants,  let  the  marquis  dismiss  them  instantly, 
and  let  him  give  her  some  honest  demoiselle  and  waiting- 
woman,  until  the  Queen  my  good  mother  orders  him 
to  procure  such  women  as  she  shall  think  suitable.  But, 
above  all,  let  him  take  good  care  of  her.  It  is  my  inten- 
tion to  refer  to  her  in  the  letters  patent,  only  as  '  my 
sister,'  and  not  as  *  dear  and  well-beloved.'  The  Queen 
my  mother  enjoins  upon  me  to  cause  d'Aubiac  to  be  hanged, 
and  that  the  execution  takes  place  in  the  presence  of  this 
wretched  woman,  in  the  court  of  the  Chateau  of  Usson. 
Arrange  for  this  to  be  properly  carried  out.  Give  orders 
that  all  her  rings  be  sent  to  me,  and  with  a  full  inventory, 
and  that  they  be  brought  to  me  as  soon  as  possible." 

This  letter  was  followed  by  another  not  less  severe 
in  tone. 

HENRI  III.  to  VILLEROY. 

"The  more  I  examine  the  matter,  the  more  I  feel 
and  recognise  the  ignominy  that  this  wretched  woman 
brings  upon  us.  The  best  that  God  can  do  for  her  and 
for  us,  is  to  take  her  away.  I  have  written  to  the  Marquis 
de  Canillac  concerning  her  women ;  that  he  leaves  her 
two  waiting-women  and  her  maids-of-honour  ;  since  I 
judged  them  to  be  better  able  to  endure  captivity  than 
those  who  have  not  deserved  it.  As  for  this  Aubiac, 

331 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

although  he  merits  death,  both  in  the  eyes  of  God  and 
men,  it  would  be  well  for  some  judges  to  conduct  his 
trial,  in  order  that  we  may  have  always  before  us  what 
will  serve  to  repress  her  [Marguerite's]  audacity,  for  she 
will  always  be  too  proud  and  malignant.  Decide  what 
ought  to  be  done,  for  death,  we  are  all  resolved,  must 
follow.  Tell  the  marquis  not  to  budge  until  I  have 
furnished  him  with  Swiss  and  other  troops."  l 

In  conformity  with  the  King's  orders,  d'Aubiac  was 
taken  to  Aigueperse,  and  there,  after  a  mockery  of  a  trial, 
hanged  on  the  Place  Saint-Louis,  "  kissing  until  the  last 
moment  of  his  existence,"  according  to  the  Divorce 
satyrique,  "  a  blue  cut-velvet  sleeve,"  all  that  remained 
to  him  of  the  favours  of  his  beloved  mistress.  A  grave  had 
been  dug  beneath  the  gibbet,  and,  while  still  breathing, 
the  hapless  young  man  was  cut  down  and  flung  into  it. 2 

On  what  charge  he  had  been  condemned  is  unknown. 
Some  writers  pretend  that  he  had  been  concerned  in 
the  death  of  Gilbert  de  Marses  ;  but,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  charge,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  what 
M.  de  Saint-Poncy  calls  the  "  tender  sympathy "  which 
existed  between  him  and  Marguerite  was  the  real  cause 
of  his  terrible  fate.3 

As  for  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  Canillac  conducted  her, 
by  way  of  Saint-Amant  and  Saint-Saturnin,to  the  Chateau 
of  Usson,  where  she  arrived  on  November  13,  1586. 

Like  Carlat,  Usson  formed  part  of  Marguerite's  ap- 
panage. The  Chateau  was  situated  on  the  summit  of 

1  Imperial  Library,  St.  Petersburg,  published  by  La  Ferriere. 

*  Negotiations  avec  la  Toscanet  iv.  669. 

8  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  says  that  Marguerite  composed  some  stanzas  "  to 
consecrate  and  avenge  the  memory  of  this  touching  figure,  who,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  would  have  inspired  the  songs  of  troubadours." 

332 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

an  inaccessible  rock,  at  the  foot  of  which  nestled  a  tiny 
village,  and  had  been  built,  according  to  an  old  legend, 
with  the  materials  of  a  pagan  temple.  Purchased  by 
the  Due  de  Berry  from  Jean  II.,  Comte  d'Auvergne, 
Usson  had  passed  to  Charles  VI.  and  his  successors. 
Louis  XI.  had  used  it  as  a  kind  of  State  prison,  "  keeping 
his  prisoners  a  hundred  times  more  securely  there,"  says 
Brantome,  "  than  at  Loches,  Vincennes,  or  Lusignan." 

Marguerite  was  at  first  very  unhappy  at  Usson, 
"  treated,"  writes  the  Tuscan  Ambassador,  Cavriana, 
"  like  the  poorest  and  most  abandoned  of  creatures." 
However,  this  state  of  things  did  not  last  long.  M.  de 
Saint-Poncy  indignantly  denies  that  his  heroine  employed 
her  wiles  to  transform  her  gaoler  into  her  prisoner,  and 
seduce  him  from  his  allegiance  to  the  King.  But  this 
"  fable  "  as  he  characterises  it,  does  not  rest  upon  the 
testimony  of  the  Divorce  satyrique  l  and  other  works  of 
a  similar  character,  but  is  supported  by  two  of  the 
Queen  of  Navarre's  most  enthusiastic  panegyrists,  Pere 
Hilarion  de  Coste  and  Brantome.  "  The  Marquis  de 
Canillac,"  writes  the  former, "  carried  her  (Marguerite) 
off,  and  brought  her  to  Usson.  But,  soon  afterwards, 
this  lord  of  a  very  illustrious  house  saw  himself  the 
captive  of  his  prisoner.  He  thought  to  have  triumphed 
over  her,  and  the  mere  sight  of  her  ivory  arms  triumphed 
over  him,  and  henceforth  he  lived  only  by  the  favour  of 
the  victorious  eyes  of  his  beautiful  captive."  And 

1  "  Her  manners — it  is  Henri  IV.  who  is  supposed  to  be  speaking — 
were  so  insinuating  that  it  was  difficult  to  defend  oneself  when  she 
chose  to  exert  them.  She  made  so  many  advances  to  Canillac  that  he 
could  not  avoid  becoming  aware  of  them;  he  preferred  a  fleeting  gratifi- 
cation to  the  duty  he  owed  his  master,  and  suffered  himself  to  become 
enslaved  by  her  whom  he  had  captured." 

1  £/ag e  des  bommfs  ft  dames  illuttres  au  XW.  et  XVII*.  siecles  :  Paris  1625. 

333 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Brantome  says :  "  Poor  man !  What  could  he  do  ? 
To  wish  to  keep  prisoner  her  who,  by  the  power  of  her 
eyes  and  her  beautiful  face,  could  rivet  her  chains  upon 
the  rest  of  the  world,  as  though  they  had  been  galley- 
slaves  !  " 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  interest  had  at  least 
as  much  to  do  with  the  subjugation  of  Canillac  as  had 
love.  In  guarding  Marguerite  for  the  King,  he  might 
naturally  expect  some  substantial  recompense ;  but 
Henri  III. 's  sceptre  was  rapidly  slipping  from  his  grasp  ; 
his  authority  was  becoming  each  day  more  feeble  ;  and 
the  marquis  decided  that  the  League  might  prove  a 
better  paymaster.  He,  accordingly,  entered  into  com- 
munication with  the  Guises,  and  submitted  to  them  a 
memoir,  in  which  he  informed  them  that  Henri  III.  and 
the  Queen-Mother,  in  order  to  checkmate  the  designs  of 
the  League,  had  agreed  to  cause  Marguerite  to  be  assas- 
sinated, and  to  marry  the  King  of  Navarre  to  Christine, 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine. 

It  seems  difficult  to  believe  that  Henri  III.  and  Cather- 
ine, unscrupulous  though  they  both  undoubtedly  were, 
could  ever  have  seriously  contemplated  so  monstrous 
a  crime ;  but  that  such  a  design  was  credited  to  them 
by  well-informed  persons  is  evident  from  the  following 
letter,  which  the  Due  de  Guise  addressed  to  Mendoza, 
after  terms  had  been  arranged  between  him  and  Canillac. 

THE  Due  DE  GUISE  to  DON  BERNARDINO  MENDOZA. 

'*  February  14,  1 587. 

"  I  do  not  intend  to  fail  to  advise  you  that  the  negotia- 
tions begun  by  me  with  the  Marquis  de  Canillac  have 
happily  succeeded,  and  I  have  persuaded  him  to  cast  in 
his  lot  with  our  party,  and,  by  this  means,  assure  the 

334 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

person  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  who  is  now  in  full 
security.  And  I  rejoice  at  this,  as  much  on  her  account 
as  for  the  acquisition  that  it  has  brought  us,  of  a  very  great 
number  of  places  and  chateaux,  which  renders  the 
Auvergne  country  perfectly  assured  to  us,  and  frustrates 
the  tragic  designs  they  are  founding  on  her  death,  the  details 
of  which  will  cause  your  hair  to  stand  up.  You  can  under- 
stand how  this  matter  has  affected  the  King  of  France, 
seeing  that  the  Marquis  has  dismissed  the  garrison  which 
his  Majesty  had  placed  there,  which  is  the  first  proof  of 
his  good  faith  that  I  demanded  of  him."  l 

Canillac,  in  fact,  had  dismissed  the  Swiss,  whom  Henri 
III.  had  placed  at  Usson,  to  guard  his  sister,  and  perhaps 
with  a  more  sinister  intention,  after  which  he  handed 
over  the  fortress  to  Marguerite.2  It  would  appear, 
however,  that  the  princess  was  obliged  to  purchase  her 
chateau  and  her  liberty,  and  at  a  very  high  price,  too, 
since,  in  the  Library  of  Clermont-Ferrand,  a  deed  is 
preserved,  wherein  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  "  in  considera- 
tion of  the  very  signal  and  very  acceptable  services 
which  she  has  received  and  hopes  to  receive  from  Jean 
de  Beaufort,  Marquis  de  Canillac,  gives,  cedes,  and 
transfers  to  him  and  his  all  the  rights  that  she  may 
possess  over  the  county  of  Auvergne  and  other  estates 

1  Archives  Nationales,  coll.  Simancas,  published  by  M  Charles  Merki. 
And  the  Tuscan  Ambassador,  Cavriana,  wrote  to  his  Court :  "  The  King 
intends  to  cause  his  sister  to  be  put  to  death  and  to  re-marry  the  King 
of  Navarre." 

*  There  appears  to  be  no  truth  in  the  story  that  the  Queen  of  Navarre 
profited  by  the  absence  of  Canillac  at  Lyons,  whither  he  had  gone  to 
negotiate  with  the  Guises,  to  seize  the  chateau,  with  the  assistance  of  a 
body  of  Leaguers  from  Orleans,  though  it  is  accepted  by  M.  de  la 
Ferriere,  who  has  a  weakness  for  the  picturesque. 

335 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  lordships  in  the  said  county  of  Auvergne  .  .  .  also 
the  sum  of  40,000  ecus,  payable  as  soon  as  it  will  be  possible 
to  discharge  it  ...  and  the  first  vacant  benefices  in  our 
estates  up  to  the  annual  value  of  30,000  livres."  l 

This  document  is  dated  September  1588,  but  M. 
Merki  is  of  opinion  that  it  was  intended  to  replace,  or 
perhaps  supplement,  some  previous  donation  of  the 
princess  in  favour  of  Canillac.  The  marquis,  however, 
did  not  live  to  enjoy  the  reward  of  his  "  very  signal 
and  very  acceptable  services,"  as,  in  April  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  he  was  killed  while  directing  the  artillery  of 
the  Leaguers  at  the  siege  of  Saint-Ouen. 

Marguerite  was  now  once  more  a  free  woman  ;  but 
she  prudently  decided  to  remain  at  Usson,  whither 
Guise  had  sent  a  body  of  troops  from  Orleans  for  her 
protection,  and  view  in  safety  from  its  inaccessible  rock 
the  sanguinary  drama  which  was  being  enacted  around 
her.  Here,  she  learned  of  the  Huguenot  victory  at 
Coutras,  when  the  Due  de  Joyeuse  was  killed  ;  of  the 
Day  of  the  Barricades  and  the  ignominious  flight  of  the 
King  from  his  capital ;  of  the  assassination  of  Guise, 
by  her  brother's  myrmidons,  that  dark  December  morn- 
ing at  Blois ;  of  the  death  of  Catherine  (January  5,  1589) 
whom  Henri  III.  had  persuaded  to  disinherit  her  daughter 
in  favour  of  Charles  de  Valois,  the  natural  son  of  Charles 
IX.  and  Marie  Touchet ;  of  the  death  of  her  most  bitter 
enemy  beneath  the  poniard  of  Jacques  Clement,  and  of 
the  heroic  struggle  her  husband  was  making  against  the 
forces  of  intolerance  and  anarchy. 

Of   Marguerite's   life   at   Usson   but   little   authentic 
information    is,    unfortunately,    forthcoming,    and,    in 

i  Published  by  M.  Charles  Merki,  La  Reine  Margot  et  la  fn  des  Valois^ 

P-  357- 

336 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

consequence  numerous  legends  have  gathered  around  it. 
If  we  are  to  listen  to  Pere  Hilarion  de  Coste,  it  was "  a 
Tabor  for  devotion,  a  Libya  for  retirement,  an  Olympus 
for  the  arts,  a  Parnassus  for  the  Muses,  a  Caucasus  for 
the  afflictions."  "  Usson,"  continues  the  good  Father, 
"  Usson  !  crowned  by  the  royal  castle,  sacred  and  holy 
abode  !  Sweet  hermitage,  where  Majesty  meditated. 
Thou  rock,  thou  art  a  witness  of  the  voluntary  seclusion 
of  thy  peerless  princess  Marguerite  !  Usson  !  earthly 
paradise  of  delights,  where  sweet  and  harmonious  voices 
combine  to  soothe — the  only  spot  where  Royalty  en  joyed 
the  repose  and  contentment  which  blessed  souls  find  in 
another  world  !  "  1  Mongez  compares  it  to  Noah's  Ark, 
a  sacred  temple  and  a  devout  monastery ; 2  while  a 
third  writer  describes  it  as  "  the  honour  and  wonder  of 
Auvergne."  3 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  to  credit  her  detractors, 
it  was  "  a  Cythera  for  her  amours,"  4  the  counterpart  of 
the  Capri  of  Tiberius ;  and  the  author  of  the  Divorce 
satyrique  gives  many  unedifying  details  of  the  debauchery 
of  which  he  declares  it  to  have  been  the  theatre.5' 

Both  sides  have,  of  course,  travestied  the  truth.  The 
Marguerite  de  Valois  of  Usson  was  probably  neither 

1  filoges  des  hommes  et  dames  illustres. 

z  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Vakls. 

8  Jean  d'Arnalt,  let  Antlqmtes  £Agen  (Paris,  1606). 

4  Pierre  Mathieu,  Histolre  de  France. 

5  According  to  this  scandalous  chronicler,  the  Queen's  favourites  at 
Usson  occupied,  for  the  most  part,  somewhat  lowly  positions  in  the  social 
scale  :  Pomini,  a  tenor  from  the  cathedral  at  Clermont ;  Julien  Date, 
the  son  of  a  carpenter  at  Aries,  whom  she  ennobled,  "  avec  six  aunet 
fetoffe"  and  who  forthwith  blossomed  into  Date  de  Saint-Julicn  (this 
young  man  met  with  a  very  tragic  end,  of  which  we  shall  have  some- 
thing to  say  hereafter) ;  Resigade,  a  shepherd  ;  Le  Moyne,  a  valet-de~ 
chambre  ;  Comines,  a  strolling  musician,  and  so  forth. 

337  Y 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

better  nor  worse  than  the  Marguerite  de  Valois  of  Paris 
and  Nerac.  A  born  coquette,  to  whom  admiration  was 
as  the  breath  of  life,  she  could  never  have  existed  without 
a  train  of  admirers,  and,  as  even  her  ardent  apologist, 
M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  admits  that  her  Majesty  was  "  dune 
complexion  trop  ardente  f>our  ne  pas  ceder  a  la  tentation" 
we  shall  probably  be  safe  to  assume  that  not  all  of  them 
sighed  in  vain.  On  the  other  hand,  the  princess  seems 
to  have  been  throughout  her  life  so  strict  an  observer 
of  the  ritual  of  her  Church,  and  had,  moreover,  so 
marked  a  predilection  for  literature  and  the  arts,  that 
a  casual  visitor  to  her  mountain  home,  mindful  of  her  ( 
stormy  past,  might  well  have  fancied  himself  in  the 
presence  of  a  penitent,  whose  only  pleasures,  when  not 
occupied  with  her  devotions,  were  music,  books,  and  the 
conversation  of  learned  men,  and  departed  with  very 
much  the  same  impressions  which  her  panegyrists  have 
formed. 

Although  Usson  had  little  to  commend  it  to  a  woman 
accustomed  to  the  bustle  and  gaiety  of  Courts,  Mar- 
guerite seems  to  have  been  happy  enough,  since,  for  the 
first  time  in  her  life,  save  for  those  mad  months  at  Agen, 
when  she  had  lived  in  constant  dread  of  being  attacked 
and  dragged  back  to  her  husband,  she  found  herself 
independent,  and  declared  to  one  of  her  visitors  that  it 
was  the  /'  chateau  'par  excellence"  She  seldom  left  its 
walls,  but  was  far  from  remaining  inactive,  since  she  was 
in  constant  communication  with  the  chiefs  of  the  League 
in  Auvergne  :  the  Comte  de  Randan,  Saint-Chamond, 
Saint- Vidal,  and  others,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the  soul 
of  the  resistance  in  that  province.  Several  of  them 
came  to  Usson  to  confer  with  its  chatelaine,  among  them 
Honore  d'Urfe,  the  author  of  that  sentimental  romance, 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Astree,  whom  some  writers  have  given  a  place  in  the  list 
of  the  Queen's  lovers,  though,  it  would  seem,  without 
sufficient  justification.  His  two  brothers,  Anne,  Grand 
Bailiff  of  Forez,  and  Antoine,  Bishop  of  Saint-Flour, 
were  also  among  Marguerite's  visitors,  and  the  former 
dedicated  to  her  his  Hymne  de  Sainte-Suzanne,  in  which 
he  calls  her  "  la  Perle  de  France." 

To  Usson  also  came  Loys  Papon,  Prior  of  Marcilly, 
who  expresses  his  admiration  for  the  Queen  in  a  long 
poem,  entitled  VHymne  a  tres  illustre  princesse  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois,  reine  de  France ;  Joseph  Scaliger, 
"  the  phoenix  of  learning,"  who  speaks  of  her  with 
enthusiasm  as  "  liberal  and  learned,  and  possessed  of 
more  royal  virtues  than  the  King  " ;  and,  finally,  Bran- 
tome,  who  came  to  submit  to  Marguerite  the  eulogium 
which  is  found  in  his  Dames  illustres,  and  who  seems  to 
have  first  suggested  to  her  the  idea  of  writing  her 
Memoires. 

These  Memoires^  "  ceuvres  d'un  apres-dtner"  according 
to  her  own  expression,  are  generally  believed  to  have  been 
written,  at  Usson,  about  1595  or  1596;  certainly  not 
earlier  than  1594,  the  date  of  her  eloge  by  Brantome, 
to  correct  and  amplify  certain  statements  in  which  was 
one  of  the  writer's  objects  ;  nor  later  than  1597  or  1598, 
as  is  indicated  by  the  comparison  of  various  passages. 
(We  have  discussed  elsewhere  the  question  whether  the 
Memoires  were  continued  beyond  her  departure  for  Paris 
in  1582.)  So  much  has  been  written  in  their  praise 
by  historians  and  critics,  from  Pellisson,  who  tells  us 
that  he  read  them  through  from  beginning  to  end  twice 
in  a  single  night,  with  the  result  that  they  converted  him 
from  a  contemner  into  a  passionate  admirer  of  his  mother 
tongue,  and  contributed  more  than  any  other  work  to 

339 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

form  his  style,  to  Sainte-Beuve,  who  declares  them  to  be 
"  an  epoch  in  the  language,  by  reason  of  which  an  endur- 
ing radiance  will  attach  to  her  name,"  that  it  would  be 
almost  superfluous  for  us  to  discuss  them  here.  But  we 
may  be  allowed  to  make  one  observation,  which  is,  that 
the  insinuation  made  by  some  writers,  notably  by  Bayle 
and  Villemain,  namely,  that  the  Memoires  are  more 
pleasing  than  veracious,  does  Marguerite  an  injustice. 
A  study  of  the  writings  of  the  best-informed  of  her 
contemporaries  proves  that,  so  far  as  regards  historical 
facts,  she  is,  in  the  main,  singularly  accurate  ;  the  pictures 
which  she  traces  of  the  St.  Bartholomew,  the  palace 
intrigues  under  Henri  III.,  and  the  condition  of  Flanders 
are,  as  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  very  justly  remarks,  not  less 
true  than  admirably  drawn.  As  for  those  which  chiefly 
concern  herself,  it  is  certainly  true  that  since,  as  we  have 
observed  elsewhere,  the  Memoires  were  intended,  in  great 
part,  as  an  apology  for  the  life  of  their  author,  Marguerite 
seeks  to  place  the  most  favourable  construction  she  is 
able  on  her  actions ;  but,  save  in  the  case  of  one  or  two 
of  her  affairs  of  the  heart,  there  seems  to  be  no  attempt 
to  tamper  with  facts. 

Marguerite's  Memoires  were  published,  for  the  first 
time,  in  1628,  thirteen  years  after  her  death,  by  Auger 
de  Mauleon — to  whom  we  are  also  indebted  for  those 
of  Villeroy  and  the  letters  of  Cardinal  d'Ossat — who 
committed  the  error  of  asserting  that  they  were  addressed 
to  Charles  de  Vivonne,  Baron  de  la  Chateigneraie,  Sieur 
de  Hardelay,  who  had  been  chamberlain  to  the  Due 
d'Anjou. 

Between  1628  and  1713,  the  work  was  several  times 
reprinted,  but  without  any  alterations,  until  in  the  latter 
year,  Jean  Godefroy  issued  a  new  edition,  printed  at 

34° 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Brussels,  explaining  that  it  was  to  Brantome,  and  not  to 
Charles  de  Vivonne,  that  the  Memoires  were  addressed 
and  furnishing  some  useful  biographical  and  historical 
notes.  Godefroy's  edition  also  included  Marguerite's 
ttoge  by  Brantome,  that  of  Bussy  by  the  same  writer, 
and  Pierre  Dampmartin's  Fortune  de  la  Cour.  In  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  three  fresh  editions 
appeared,  the  work  being  included  in  the  collection  of 
memoirs  edited  by  Petitot  and  in  that  arranged  by 
Michaud  and  Poujoulat.  These  reproduced  many  of 
the  faults  of  those  which  preceded  them ;  but  the  third 
edition,  which  was  undertaken  by  M.  Guessard  on  behalf 
of  the  Societe  de  1'Histoire  de  France,  and  included  a 
number  of  Marguerite's  letters  and  the  Memoire  justicatif, 
cleared  away  the  old  errors  and  was  an  excellent  piece 
of  work.  Since  then,  two  other  editions  have  appeared, 
both  enriched  by  notes,  one  edited  by  M.  Ludovic 
Lalanne,  the  other  by  M.  Caboche. 

Maguerite's  chief  trouble  at  Usson  seems  to  have 
been  want  of  money,  for,  though  nominally  possessed 
of  large  revenues,  the  state  of  anarchy  into  which  the 
country  was  plunged,  made  it  very  difficult  for  her  agents 
to  collect  even  a  small  part  of  them.  According  to 
Hilarion  de  Coste,  the  little  Court  was  often  exposed 
to  want,  and,  in  order  to  raise  money,  the  Queen  was 
obliged  to  pledge  the  rest  of  her  jewels  and  to  melt  down 
her  plate.1  These  sacrifices  proving  insufficient,  she 
appealed  to  her  sister-in-law,  Elizabeth,  widow  of 

1  The  troubles  of  the  time  often  reduced  the  greatest  personages  to 
extreme  want.  In  the  winter  of  1594,  Henri  of  Navarre  found  himself 
without  sufficient  money  to  buy  fodder  for  his  horses,  while  his  linen 
was  reduced  to  five  handkerchiefs  and  a  dozen  shirts,  most  of  them  torn  ! 
"  I  shall  have  to  go  en  foot  and  naked,"  he  remarked. 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Charles   IX.,  who   possessed   in   France   a   rich   dowry 
This  estimable  princess,  who,  after  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band, had  retired  to  Austria,  responded  generously,  and 
continued  to  assist  Marguerite,  until  her  death  in  January 
1592. 

Always  lavishly  generous,  Marguerite,  in  spite  of  her 
financial  troubles,  disbursed  large  sums  in  charity,  and, 
on  this  account,  enjoyed  great  popularity  among  the 
peasantry  of  Auvergne.  When  she  finally  quitted  Usson 
in  May  1605,  her  last  thought  was  for  the  poor,  and  she 
signed  a  deed  perpetuating  the  alms  which  she  had  been 
accustomed  to  distribute. 


342 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

Defeat  of  the  League  in  Auvergne — Marguerite  abandons  the 
cause  of  the  rebels  and  makes  her  peace  with  Henri  IV. — Be- 
ginning of  the  negotiations  for  the  dissolution  of  her  marriage 
with  Henri — Visit  of  Erard  to  Usson — Marguerite's  letter  to 
Duplessis-Mornay — Correspondence  between  the  parties — 
Slow  progress  of  the  negotiations-^Gabrielle  d'Estre'es — The 
King  anxious  to  marry  her,  in  spite  of  the  impolicy  of  such  a 
step — Marguerite  unwilling  to  make  way  for  "  a  woman  of 
impure  life" — Opposition  of  Clement  VIII.  to  the  divorce — 
Death  of  Gabrielle — Negotiations  for  the  King's  marriage  to 
Mane  de'  Medici — The  divorce  is  pronounced — Letters  of 
Henri  and  Marguerite — The  King's  passion  for  Henriette 
d'Entragues  raises  new  difficulties — Marriage  of  Henri  IV.  and 
Marie  de'  Medici. 

FROM  1589  to  1592,  Auvergne  was  a  prey  to  all  the 
horrors  of  civil  war.  The  League,  however,  was  the 
stronger  party  in  the  province,  and,  thanks  to  the  good 
understanding  which  existed  between  Marguerite  and 
its  leaders)  she  remained  undisturbed  at  Usson.  During 
these  years,  the  princess  shared  the  hopes  and  fears  of 
the  rebels,  was  the  confidante  of  their  plans,  and  sent 
or,  at  any  rate,  permitted  some  of  her  servants,  notably 
her  seneschal  at  Clermont,  Jacques  d'Oradour,  and  her 
chevalier  d'honntur,  Jean  de  Lastic,  to  fight  in  their 
ranks.  But  on  March  14,  1592 — the  same  day  which 
saw  Henri  of  Navarre  victorious  in  the  plain  of  Ivry— 
the  Leaguers  of  Auvergne  were  utterly  routed  at  the 

343 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Battle  of  Cros-Rolland,  near  Issoire,  and  from  that 
moment  their  fortunes  rapidly  declined,  and  the  royal 
power  was  gradually  re-established. 

The  King  of  Navarre's  abjuration  of  Protestantism 
at  Saint-Denis  (July  25,  1592)  deprived  the  League  of 
the  pretext  which  had  been  its  main  source  of  strength, 
and  Marguerite  lost  no  time  in  abandoning  the  sinking 
ship.  When  her  husband  was  crowned  at  Chartres, 
she  wrote  to  felicitate  him  on  his  accession,  and  hence- 
forth devoted  all  the  influence  she  possessed  in  Auvergne 
in  favour  of  peace.  "  It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  Valois 
princess,"  says  her  devoted  admirer,  M.  de  Saint-Poncy, 
"  to  have  disengaged  herself  from  the  League,  so  soon 
as  Catholic  interests  were  safeguarded  by  the  return  of 
her  husband  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  to  have  com- 
prehended the  character  of  this  great  act  of  reconciliation, 
which  gave  satisfaction  to  two  fundamental  principles, 
to  wit,  hereditary  monarchy  and  national  religion." 
It  certainly  does  infinite  credit  to  the  lady's  intelligence 
that  she  should  have  so  quickly  comprehended  how 
this  great  act  of  reconciliation  was  likely  to  affect  her 
interests,  and  that  she  should  have  endeavoured  to  make 
her  peace  as  speedily  as  possible  with  the  husband  with 
whose  enemies  she  had  so  actively  intrigued  and  against 
whose  troops  her  servants  had  fought. 

But  the  Bearnais  was  the  last  man  in  the  world  to 
bear  malice,  besides  which,  if  he  had  much  to  forgive 
he  had  also  much  to  be  forgiven.  Finally,  he  was 
becoming  increasingly  anxious  to  obtain  his  wife's  consent 
to  a  step  to  which  his  advisers  had  been  for  some  time 
urging  him,  and  the  political  importance  of  which  could 
scarcely  be  exaggerated. 

It  had  long  been  evident  that  Henri's  position  would 

344 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

be  immensely  strengthened  if  he  were  the  father  of  legiti- 
mate children.  The  young  Prince  de  Conde,  the  heir- 
presumptive  to  the  throne,  was  a  boy  of  feeble  health 
and  irresolute  character,  the  legitimacy  of  whose  birth 
was  very  much  a  matter  of  opinion.  In  the  event  of 
the  King's  early  death,  even  should  Conde's  claims 
be  undisputed,  trouble  would  be  certain  to  arise  in  regard 
to  the  Regency,  since  his  mother,  a  woman  of  loose  life, 
and  strongly  suspected  of  complicity  in  the  murder  of 
her  husband,  was  obviously  unfitted  for  such  a  post. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  reconciliation  between  the  King 
and  Marguerite  held  out  little  or  no  hope  of  the  heir 
so  much  desired ;  a  woman  on  the  threshold  of  her  fortieth 
year  can  scarcely  be  expected  to  bear  the  children  who 
have  been  denied  to  her  vigorous  youth.  The  only 
course,  therefore,  to  consolidate  the  new  dynasty  and 
assure  peace  to  the  distracted  kingdom,  was  for  Henri 
to  obtain  a  divorce  from  his  unfruitful  consort  and 
marry  again. 

Duplessis-Mornay  would  appear  to  have  been  the  first 
of  the  King's  advisers  to  impress  upon  his  master  the  duty 
of  providing  for  an  undisputed  succession.  One  day, 
he  happened  to  be  representing  to  him  "  all  the  dangers 
that  he  ran  in  his  frivolous  attachments,  and  to  which  he 
exposed  his  soul  and  his  reputation."  "  Why  then,  don't 
you  think  of  marrying  me  ?  "  remarked  Henri.  "  Marry 
you  !  "  exclaimed  Mornay.  "  There  is  a  double  diffi- 
culty ;  we  must  first  unmarry  you.  But  if  you  are  really 
in  earnest — and  I  believe  you  are,  since  you  know  well 
enough  the  need  there  is  for  strengthening  your  State — I 
will  venture,  by  your  command,  to  undertake  the  affair." 

Mornay   lost   no   time   in   approaching   Erard,   Mar- 
1  Mftnoirfs  du  Duplessis-Mornay. 
345 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

guerite's  maitre  des  requetes,  and,  in  the  spring  of  1593, 
despatched  him  to  Usson,  to  ascertain  his  mistress's 
views  on  the  subject.  In  exchange  for  the  crown 
matrimonial,  he  was  empowered  to  offer  her  a  sum  of 
250,000  ecus  to  pay  her  debts,  which,  by  this  time, 
amounted  to  an  enormous  sum,  a  pension  of  12,000  ecus 
and  a  residence  suited  to  her  rank,  to  be  subsequently 
decided  upon.  In  return,  he  was  to  request  the  Queen 
to  give  him  a  blank  procuration,  and  to  declare  before 
a  notary  that  she  had  been  married  without  her  consent, 
within  the  prohibited  degrees,  and  without  the  papal 
dispensation.  Mornay  hoped  that  the  King  would  have 
no  need  to  have  recourse  to  the  Pope,  and  that  the  eccle- 
siastical and  secular  courts  would  be  competent  to 
pronounce  a  divorce  . 

Marguerite  received  her  husband's  proposals  in  very 
good  part.  She  was  growing  somewhat  weary  of  Usson 
and  of  a  retirement  which  did  not  protect  her  from  the 
importunities  of  her  creditors,  more  clamorous  than 
ever  now  that  Elizabeth  of  Austria  was  dead,  and  she 
could  no  longer  turn  to  her  for  assistance ;  and  was 
well  aware  that,  after  so  compromising  a  past,  she  could 
never  hope  to  be  Queen  of  France  in  anything  but  name. 
Moreover,  by  giving  her  consent  to  what  was  demanded 
of  her,  she  would  establish  claims  on  her  husband's 
gratitude,  and  would  be  able  to  pose  for  the  remainder 
of  her  life  as  one  who  had  sacrificed  herself  to  the  welfare 
of  the  State.  She,  therefore,  decided  that  the  very 
substantial  advantages  which  the  dissolution  of  her 
marriage  promised  her  far  outweighed  the  loss  of  dignity 
which  she  would  thereby  sustain,  and  wrote  to  Mornay 
the  following  letter  : 

346 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

THE  QUEEN  OF  NAVARRE  to  DUPLESSIS-MORNAY. 

dpril  1593. 

"  MONSIEUR  DUP LESS  is,— Although  I  attribute  only 
to  the  goodness  of  God  and  the  kindly  disposition  of  the 
King  my  husband,  the  honour  which  it  has  pleased  him  to 
do  me,  in  assuring  me  of  his  favour,  the  possession  in  the 
world  which  I  hold  the  most  dear ;  being  aware,  never- 
theless, how  much  the  counsels  of  persons  endowed  with 
such  ability  and  loyalty  as  yourself  are  able  to  accomplish 
with  a  great  man  who  esteems  and  trusts  them,  as  I  know 
the  King  my  husband  does,  I  do  not  doubt  that  your 
good  offices  have  been  able  to  serve  me.  Wherefore  I 
should  have  esteemed  myself  to  be  too  ungrateful, 
were  I  not  to  thank  you  by  this  letter.  The  Sieur 
Erard  will  communicate  everything  to  you.  If  you  will 
oblige  me  by  assisting  in  the  carrying  through  of  what 
has  thus  begun  so  well,  on  which  depends  all  the  repose 
and  security  of  my  life,  you  will  place  me  under  an 
immortal  obligation,  and  I  shall  be  very  desirous  of  show- 
ing myself,  by  every  means,  your  most  affectionate  and 
faithful  friend."  » 

And  to  stimulate  Mornay's  zeal,  and  in  proof  of  her 
gratitude,  Marguerite  sent  him,  some  months  later,  a 
present  of  14,000  livres. 

On  his  return,  Erard  had  a  conference  with  some  of 
the  King's  Council,  when  it  was  decided  that  his  Majesty 
ought  to  send  his  accommodating  consort  a  letter  of 
thanks ;  and  this  Henri,  accordingly,  did,  informing  her 
of  "his  extreme  satisfaction  at  the  resolution  at  which 

1  Memoires  ft  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valo'u  (edit.  Guessard)- 

347 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

she  had  arrived  to  do  everything  which  depended  upon 
her  to  assist  in  the  furtherance  of  his  affairs,  "  and 
promising  to  arrange  "  for  the  payment  of  her  debts  and 
pension  as  speedily  as  possible." 

During  the  next  eighteen  months,  Erard  was  con- 
tinually travelling  backwards  and  forwards  between  the 
King's  camp  and  Usson,  and  a  great  deal  of  correspond- 
ence passed  between  the  parties  and  their  representatives, 
chiefly,  it  must  be  confessed,  of  a  rather  sordid  character. 
In  a  letter  dated  November  10,  1593,  we  find  Marguerite 
thanking  her  husband  for  confirming  her  in  the  possession 
of  the  property  and  privileges  which  she  had  enjoyed 
under  the  two  previous  reigns,  and  for  the  donation  of 
the  promised  250,000  ecus  for  the  payment  of  her  debts. 
But,  two  days  later,  she  writes  to  Mornay,  demanding 
that  the  proposed  pension  of  12,000  ecus  should  be 
increased  to  one  of  14,000.  "  That  means  nothing  to 
his  Majesty,"  she  writes,  "  but  a  good  deal  to  me,  who 
am  left  with  such  slender  means.  In  surrendering  all 
that  I  surrender,  it  will  be  almost  impossible  for  me  to 
maintain  a  suite  in  accordance  with  my  rank." 

In  the  autumn  of  1 594,  she  writes  to  the  King,  request- 
ing to  be  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  Usson.  Henri  IV., 
however,  demurred,  since  he  did  not  approve  of  feudal 
fortresses  of  this  kind  being  in  the  hands  of  any  one 
upon  whose  loyalty  he  could  not  implicitly  rely ;  upon 
which  his  wife  returns  to  the  charge  :  "  The  King  ought 
rather  to  trust  me,"  she  writes,  "  than  those  who  desire 
to  deprive  me  of  it."  Tired  of  war,  his  Majesty  yielded, 
and  was  informed  by  Marguerite  that  "  she  considered 
this  hermitage  to  have  been  built  to  serve  her  as  an  ark 
of  safety." 

Then,  Henri  did  not  always  keep  his  promises ;  her 

348 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

pension  fell  into  arrears,  and,  in  a  letter  of  July  29,  1594, 
Marguerite  reproaches  him  with  having  broken  his  word  ; 
while  in  another,  dated  November  8,  she  demands  that 
in  place  of  a  part  of  her  pension  which  had  been  assigned 
her  on  certain  Crown  property  at  Clermont,  she  should 
have  a  vacant  office  in  the  Parlement  of  Toulouse ; 
by  selling  it,  she  says,  she  will,  at  any  rate,  be  able  to 
procure  some  resources.  The  King,  in  his  answer,  seeks 
to  pacify  her,  pleading  extenuating  circumstances, 
attributing  the  delay  to  the  troubles  of  the  time  rather 
than  to  any  unwillingness  on  his  part  to  discharge  his 
obligations,  and  assuring  her  that  he  will  "  testify  by 
his  deeds  the  truth  of  his  promises  and  words."  In  the 
same  letter,  he  asks  for  the  procuration,  which  the 
Queen  had  not  yet  sent ;  and  Marguerite,  in  spite  of 
her  indignation,  complied  with  the  request,  and  sent  it 
en  blanc,  as  she  had  been  desired  to  do. 

Nevertheless,  matters  made  but  slow  progress ;  the 
divorce,  in  fact,  was  subordinated  to  the  reconciliation 
of  the  King  of  France  with  the  Vatican.  There  had  been 
some  thought,  at  first,  of  invoking  certain  "  Gallican 
liberties,"  in  virtue  of  which  the  French  bishops  might 
be  able  to  declare  the  marriage  annulled.  But,  after 
his  abjuration  at  Saint-Denis,  Henri  comprehending 
the  danger  of  such  an  expedient,  which  exposed  the 
legitimacy  of  a  second  marriage  to  the  risk  of  being 
disputed,  modified  his  plans.  "  Some  authors,"  observes 
M.  de  Saint-Poncy,  "  have  demanded  why  the  King 
addressed  himself  to  the  ecclesiastical  authority,  instead 
of  causing  his  marriage  to  be  annulled  by  lay  authority, 
in  employing  for  the  purpose  either  the  Parlement  or 
the  States-General.  The  reason  of  this  is  very  simple  ; 
it  is  that,  except  by  abandoning  orthodoxy,  he  could  not 

349 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

free  himself  from  a  religious  tie,  save  by  the  religious 
power.  On  her  side,  Queen  Marguerite  felt  herself 
unable  to  give  her  consent,  except  to  a  dissolution 
sanctioned  by  the  Pope.  Henri  IV.  had  not  only  to 
reckon  with  this  legitimate  demand,  but  also  with  public 
opinion,  which  would  have  seen  in  a  second  marriage, 
contracted  without  the  consent  of  Rome,  only  an  illicit 
union.  '  Reasons  of  State  '  as  well  as  religious  considera- 
tions obliged  him  to  have  recourse  to  the  Court  of 
Rome.  For  a  King,  whose  authority  was  only  partially 
established,  to  attempt  to  disperse  with  the  pontifical 
authority  would  have  been  very  dangerous,  if  not  im- 
practicable. Thus  the  first  aim  of  a  divorce  without  the 
intervention  of  the  Holy  See,  being  judged  impossible, 
it  was  only  after  the  absolution  accorded  by  the  Pope 
to  his  royal  penitent,  on  September  16,  1595,  that  the 
negotiation  was  able  to  be  effectively  pursued."  * 

Notwithstanding  that  Clement  VIII.  had  consented 
to  remove  the  ban  of  excommunication  launched  against 
Henri  ten  years  before,  he  showed  himself  anything 
but  favourably  disposed  to  the  divorce.  Although  the 
marriage  had  been  performed  without  a  dispensation, 
this  irregularity  had  been  subsequently  condoned  by 
Gregory  XIII.,  when  he  confirmed  the  marriage  in  the 
following  October.2  Clement  was  naturally  reluctant  to 
admit  that  his  predecessor  had  acted  beyond  his  powers, 
since  to  do  so  would  be  to  create  a  dangerous  pre- 
cedent. Moreover,  he  perceived  that,  so  long  as  the 
question  remained  unsettled,  he  possessed  a  hold  over 
the  King  of  France,  which  he  might  utilise  to  curtail 
the  concessions  which  Henri  desired  to  grant  to  the 

1  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Valois,  v,  353. 

2  See  pp.  85  note  and  1 1  ^  supra 

35° 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Huguenots,  and  to  strengthen  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
See  in  France. 

Nor  was  the  reluctance  of  the  Vatican  the  only  obstacle 
to  a  settlement.  Henri's  most  trusted  advisers,  Mornay 
and  Sully,  who  had  at  first  so  strongly  urged  the  divorce, 
no  longer  advocated  it  with  their  former  enthusiasm, 
fearing  that  its  only  result  would  be  to  legitimate  a  love 
intrigue. 

In  1 590,  la  belle  Corisande  had  been  succeeded  in  the 
King's  affections  by  a  new  mistress,  who  had  gained 
over  her  royal  lover  an  ascendency  even  greater  than  that 
which  her  predecessor  had  enjoyed.  This  was  the 
celebrated  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  the  "  model  mistress," 
one  of  the  six  daughters  of  Antoine  d'Estrees,  Grand 
Master  of  the  Artillery,  and  of  Franchise  Babou  de  la 
Boudaisiere.  Both  mother  and  daughter  were  notorious 
for  their  gallantries,  and  the  girls  and  their  brother  were 
known  as  the  "  seven  deadly  sins."  *  Gabrielle  had  been 
presented  to  Henri  by  her  lover,  the  Due  de  Bellegarde, 
one  of  the  King's  favourites.  His  Majesty  fell  violently 
in  love  on  the  spot,  and  though  the  fair  Gabrielle  at 
first  rejected  his  suit,  and  told  him  to  his  face  that  "  she 
found  him  so  ugly  that  she  was  unable  to  look  at  him," 
he  made  her  such  brilliant  promises,  including,  of  course, 
the  customary  offer  of  marriage,  that  she  eventually 
relented.  To  save  appearances,  the  King  married  his 
new  enchantress  to  Nicole  d'Amerval,  Seigneur  de  Lian- 
court,  a  widower  with  fourteen  children,  who,  however, 

1  In  1592,  Gabrielle's  mother  left  her  hu.band  and  went  to  live  with 
Yves  d'Alegre,  Governor  of  Issoire.  But  her  conduct  and  that  of  her 
lover  so  exasperated  the  townspeople  that,  on  the  following  New  Year's 
Eve,  they  rose  in  revolt,  stormed  the  governor's  house,  and  murdered 
them  both. 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

was  not  permitted  to  be  her  husband  in  anything  but 
name.  In  1593,  she  bore  the  King  a  son,  baptized 
Cesar,  and,  shortly  afterwards,  at  Henri's  instigation, 
began  an  action  for  nullity  of  marriage  before  the  eccle- 
siastical courts,  "  fondee  sur  Vincapacite  conjugate  de 
M.  de  Liancourt"  Her  suit  was  successful,  and  the  child, 
who  was  the  cause  of  these  proceedings,  was  duly  acknow- 
ledged and  legitimated  by  his  royal  father,  and  created 
Due  de  Vendome. 

After  her  emancipation,  Gabrielle  was  successively 
created  Marquise  de  Monceaux  and  Duchesse  de  Beau- 
fort, and  installed  triumphantly  as  maitresse  en  litre. 
She  bore  the  King  another  son,  called  Alexandre  and 
also  legitimated,  and  a  daughter,  Catherine  Henriette, 
afterwards  married  to  the  Due  d'Elbceuf ;  and  Henri's 
attachment  to  her  grew  stronger  as  time  went  on,  though 
Bellegarde,  at  any  rate,  continued  to  be  a  not  unfavoured 
rival.  "  Good-bye,  sweetheart,"  writes  the  King  to 
her,  from  Saint-Denis,  on  the  evening  before  his  abjura- 
tion ;  "  come  in  good  time  to-morrow,  for  it  seems  to 
me  a  year  since  I  saw  you.  A  thousand  kisses  for  the 
hands  of  my  angel  and  the  lips  of  my  dear  mistress." 
And  again  :  "  I  am  writing  to  you,  my  dear  love,  at  the 
foot  of  your  picture,  which  I  worship,  because  it  is  meant 
for  you,  not  because  it  is  like  you.  I  am  a  competent 
judge,  since  you  are  painted  in  all  perfection  in  my 
soul,  in  my  heart,  and  in  my  eyes." 

The  portraits  of  Gabrielle  scarcely  justify  the  ex- 
travagant terms  in  which  her  contemporaries  celebrate 
her  beauty ;  but  she  was  undoubtedly  a  very  pretty 
woman,  with  a  dazzling  complexion,  golden  hair,  and  blue 
eyes  shaded  by  long  lashes.  Moreover,  she  was  sweet- 
tempered,  kind-hearted  and  affectionate,  and  probably 

35* 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

sincerely  attached  to  the  King,  notwithstanding  her 
occasional  infidelities.  She  used  her  influence  with 
moderation  and  to  the  advantage  of  others  rather  than 
to  their  detriment,  and  conducted  herself  with  such 
decorum  that  even  austere  Calvinists  declared  that  her 
behaviour  was  "  that  of  a  wife  rather  than  of  a  mistress." 

At  last,  Henri  began  to  entertain  serious  thoughts 
of  marrying  his  Gabrielle,  so  soon  as  his  inconvenient 
consort  could  be  got  rid  of.  Sully  relates  that  at  the 
time  of  the  Peace  of  Vervins  (May  2,  1598),  the  King 
one  day  drew  him  into  a  garden,  and,  after  carefully 
closing  the  door,  approached  the  delicate  subject  of 
his  divorce  and  re-marriage.  The  Pope,  he  was  assured 
by  his  Ambassador  at  Rome,  and  those  about  the  Papal 
Court,  was  anxious  to  serve  him  in  the  matter  of  a  divorce, 
and  it  therefore  behoved  him  to  find  a  wife  without  delay. 
He  then  proceeded  to  enumerate  all  the  marriageable 
foreign  princesses  and  French  girls  of  high  rank,  to  each 
and  all  of  whom,  however,  he  contrived  to  discover  some 
fatal  objection  as  a  possible  Queen. 

"  Ah  well,  Sire,"  said  Sully,  "  cause  all  the  most  beau- 
tiful girls  in  France  from  seventeen  to  twenty-five  to 
be  brought  together  ;  converse  with  them,  study  their 
hearts,  study  their  minds,  and  finally  place  yourself  in 
the  hands  of  matrons  of  experience  in  such  matters." 

The  King  laughed,  and  accused  his  Minister  of  jesting 
at  his  expense.  "  What  would  people  say  of  such  an 
assembly  of  girls  ?  "  he  remarked.  "  But  be  sure  that 
the  wife  I  seek  must,  above  all,  be  a  sweet-tempered 
woman,  of  good  appearance,  and  likely  to  bear  me 
children.  Do  you  know  of  one  who  unites  all  these 
qualities  ?  "  The  cautious  Sully  replied  that  he  had 
not  considered  the  matter.  "  Well  !  what  will  you 

353  z 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

say  if  I  name  her  in  whom  I  have  found  them  all  ?  " 
cried  the  King.  "  That  could  not  be,  unless  in  the  case 
of  a  widow,"  rejoined  the  Minister.  "  Ah !  big  fool 
that  you  are,  confess  that  all  the  conditions  I  desire  I 
find  in  my  mistress  !  "  exclaimed  Henri. 

Towards  the  end  of  1598,  it  was  generally  known  that 
the  King,  in  spite  of  the  strenuous  opposition  of  Sully 
and  Mornay,  intended  to  marry  the  Duchesse  de  Beaufort. 
Such  a  resolution  aroused  universal  alarm.  Gabrielle 
had  many  friends  and  few  enemies,  but  not  even  her  most 
devoted  partisans  could  maintain  that  her  birth  and 
previous  life  fitted  her  to  be  the  Queen  of  France ;  while 
it  was  obvious  that  the  opposing  claims  of  her  legitimated 
sons,  and  of  those  who  might  be  born  in  wedlock,  would 
add  another  element  of  discord  to  those  already  existing. 
But  it  was  necessary  for  Marguerite  to  sign  a  new  pro- 
curation, for  the  old  one  was  no  longer  valid.  The  King, 
accordingly,  despatched  to  Usson,  Martin  Langlois,  a 
confidant  of  the  Queen,  whom  she  had  nominated  as 
one  of  her  procurators  in  1594.  '^>^ie  favours  heaped 
on  the  head  of  Gabrielle,  however,  had  irritated  Mar- 
guerite, who  had  already,  it  appears,  hinted  that  she 
was  but  little  inclined  to  make  way  for  a  mistress,  for 
Langlois  carried  with  him  a  letter  from  Henri  IV.  "  I 
always  believed,"  he  wrote,  "  that  you  would  by  no 
means  fail  me  in  what  you  promised,  and  that  you  would 
not  alter  the  resolution  at  which  you  had  arrived.  On 
my  part,  I  shall  not  fail  in  anything  which  I  have  promised 
you." 

Notwithstanding  this  letter,  Langlois  experienced 
great  difficulty  in  persuading  Marguerite  to  do  what 
was  required  of  her.  "  It  is  repugnant  to  me,"  said 
she,  "  to  put  in  my  place  a  woman  of  such  low  extraction 

354 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

and  of  so  impure  a  life  as  the  one  about  whom  rumour 
speaks."  *  However,  on  February  7,  1599,  she  at  length 
consented  to  sign  the  procuration,  and,  by  a  singular 
caprice,  desired  that  it  should  contain  a  declaration 
that  her  marriage  had  never  been  consummated ;  but 
on  this  she  was,  after  some  difficulty,  induced  not  to 
insist. 

So  soon  as  the  procuration  was  signed,  Henri  IV. 
despatched  an  envoy  to  Rome ;  but  Clement  VIII. 
disapproved  of  his  Majesty's  choice,  less  probably  on 
account  of  Gabrielle's  obvious  unsuitability  to  share  a 
throne  as  because  she  was  the  intimate  friend  of  the 
King's  sister  Catherine,  now  Duchesse  de  Bar,  and  also 
of  Louise  de  Coligny,  Teligny's  widow,  who  had  married 
en  secondes  noces  William  the  Silent,  Prince  of  Orange. 
These  two  ladies  were  among  the  most  stubborn  heretics 
in  Europe,  and  his  Holiness  did  not  doubt  that,  urged 
by  them,  Gabrielle  would  use  all  her  influence  with  the 
King  in  favour  of  their  co-religionists.  He,  therefore, 
still  refused  to  dissolve  the  marriage,  sheltering  himself 
behind  the  difficulties  regarding  the  succession  in  which 
such  a  marriage  must  involve  France. 

This  paternal  solicitude  for  his  kingdom  did  not 
deceive  Henri  IV.,  who,  impatient  at  the  delay,  instructed 
his  representatives  at  the  Vatican  to  hint  that,  if  the  Holj 
Father  continued  contumacious,  the  Eldest  Son  of  the 

1  But  she  had,  nevertheless,  condescended  to  ask  favours  of  "  the 
woman  of  impure  life  "  and  to  regard  her  as  a  sister.  "  I  speak  to  you 
freely,"  she  writes  to  Gabrielle,  on  February  24,  1597,  "as  to  one 
whom  I  wish  to  keep  as  a  sister.  I  have  placed  so  much  confidence  in 
the  assurance  that  you  have  given  me  that  you  love  me,  that  I  do  not 
desire  to  have  any  protector  but  you  near  the  King  ;  for  nothing  that 
comes  from  your  beautiful  mouth  can  fail  to  be  well  received."  She 
had  also,  shortly  before  Langlois's  visit,  transferred  to  Gabrielle  her 
duchy  of  Etampes. 

2S5 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Church  might  be  tempted  to  behave  in  an  exceedingly 
unfilial  manner,  and  follow  the  example  of  his  last  name- 
sake on  the  throne  of  England.  Whether,  with  this 
threat  hanging  over  him,  Clement  would  eventually 
have  yielded  is  a  matter  of  opinion  ;  but  an  unexpected 
event  came  to  relieve  the  tension. 

At  the  beginning  of  April  1599,  the  Duchesse  de 
Beaufort,  who  was  enceinte  for  the  fourth  time,  left 
Fontainebleau,  where  the  Court  then  was,  to  spend 
Easter  in  Paris.  She  lodged  at  the  Deanery  of  Saint- 
Germain  1'Auxerrois,  with  her  aunt,  Madame  de  Sourdes, 
but  on  the  6th  supped  at  the  house  of  an  Italian  financier, 
named  Zamet,  who  had  risen  from  a  very  humble  station 
to  great  wealth.  The  next  day,  she  attended  the  Tene- 
brce  at  the  Couvent  du  Petit  Saint-Antoine,  then  re- 
nowned for  its  fine  music.  During  the  service,  she  was 
taken  ill,  and  was  carried  to  Zamet's  house,  which  was 
close  to  the  convent,  where  she  recovered  sufficiently 
to  return  home.  Next  day,  although  still  feeling  unwell, 
she  attended  Mass  at  Saint-Germain-!' Auxerrois.  Here, 
however,  she  was  again  taken  ill,  and  on  returning  to 
her  relative  's  house,  fell  into  violent  convulsions.  On 
the  9th,  she  gave  birth  to  a  still-born  child,  after  which 
the  surgeons,  who  attended  her,  proceeded  to  bleed  the 
unfortunate  woman  four  times  !  The  consequence  was 
that  poor  Gabrielle  died  the  following  morning  (April  10); 
the  only  wonder  is  that  she  did  not  die  before  !  The 
public,  learning  that  she  had  taken  ill  shortly  after  supping 
with  Zamet,  persisted  in  the  belief  that  she  had  been 
poisoned — Italians  bore  a  sinister  reputation  in  those 
days,  and,  indeed,  down  to  a  very  much  later  period — 
but  this  theory  is  now  generally  discredited. 

The  King  was  prostrated  with  grief  at  the  loss  of  his 

356 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

mistress.  "  My  affliction,"  he  wrote  to  his  sister  Cather- 
ine, "  is  incomparable,  like  the  subject  which  is  the  cause 
of  it.  Regrets  and  tears  will  accompany  me  to  the  tomb. 
The  root  of  my  love  is  dead,  and  will  never  put  forth 
another  branch."  However,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
he  was  not  long  in  finding  consolation. 

When  with  Gabrielle  had  disappeared  the  great  obstacle 
to  a  divorce,  petitions  poured  in  from  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  begging  the  King  to  marry  again.  Deputations 
from  the  Parlements,  the  municipal  bodies,  and  the 
religious  corporations  waited  upon  his  Majesty  to  present 
addresses,  in  which  were  pointed  out  the  advantages  of 
a  new  union,  which  might  procure  him  successors,  and 
thus  assure  the  tranquillity  of  the  realm.  While  Henri's 
representatives  at  Rome  redoubled  their  efforts  to  induce 
Clement  VIII.  to  annul  his  marriage  with  Marguerite, 
his  Ministers,  undeterred  by  the  many  evils  of  which  a 
Florentine  marriage  had  before  been  the  cause,  opened 
negotiations  with  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  for  the 
hand  of  his  niece,  Marie,  daughter  of  his  brother  and 
predecessor,  Francisco  de'  Medici.  Marie  de'  Medici  was 
twenty-five,  with  a  sufficiency  of  good  looks  to  satisfy 
a  not  too  exacting  husband,  and  the  prospect  of  a  rich 
dowry.  Moreover,  she  was  the  niece  of  the  Pope,  a 
circumstance  which  would  doubtless  induce  his  Holiness 
to  expedite  the  divorce. 

Matters,  for  a  time,  went  smoothly.  On  July  29, 
1599,  Marguerite  ratified  the  procuration  of  the  previous 
February,  and  nominated  as  her  procurators,  Martin 
Langlois  and  Edouard  Mole,  councillor  to  the  Parle- 
ment.  She  further  declared  that,  for  reasons  already 
known,  she  neither  believed  that  she  had  contracted  a 

357 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

valid  marriage,  nor  regarded  the  King  as  her  husband  ; 
that,  moreover,  she  was  no  longer  young  enough  to  give 
him  successors,  and  begged  his  permission  to  address 
herself  to  the  Pope  and  to  other  ecclesiastical  judges  to 
cause  their  union  to  be  annulled.  This  document  was 
at  once  despatched  to  Rome,  and,  on  September  24, 
Clement,  having  no  longer  to  fear  the  influence  of 
Gabrielle  d'Estrees  and  her  Huguenot  friends,  delegated 
the  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse,  the  Bishop  of  Modena — the 
Papal  Nuncio  at  the  French  Court — and  Horace  Montan, 
Archbishop  of  Aries,  "  to  inquire  into  the  affair." 

On  October  15,  the  inquiry  was  opened  at  the  Louvre, 
in  the  presence  of  La  Guesle,  the  <pTOcureuT-general,  and 
the  two  procurators  appointed  by  the  Queen,  when 
Henri  IV.  was  interrogated.  Marguerite,  at  her  own 
request,  was  examined  at  Usson,  not  by  the  commissioners, 
but  by  Berthier,  the  syndic  of  the  clergy.  "  Never," 
said  she  to  him,  "  did  I  consent  willingly  to  this  marriage. 
I  was  forced  into  it  by  King  Charles  IX.  and  the  Queen 
my  mother.  I  besought  them  with  copious  tears  ;  but 
the  King  threatened  me,  that  if  I  did  not  consent,  I 
should  be  the  most  unhappy  woman  in  his  realm. 
Although  I  had  never  been  able  to  entertain  any  affection 
for  the  King  of  Navarre,  and  said  and  repeated  that  it  was 
my  desire  to  wed  another  prince,  I  was  compelled  to  obey." 
And  she  added,  "  To  my  profound  regret,  conjugal 
affection  did  not  exist  between  us  during  the  seven 
months  which  preceded  my  husband's  flight  in  1575  ; 
although  we  occupied  the  same  couch,  we  never  spoke 
to  one  another."  * 

If  we  are  to  believe  the  historian  Dupleix,  a  writer, 
however,  very    hostile    to    Marguerite,    Henri    IV.,  on 

1  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  Fonds  Frar^ais,  published  by  La  Ferriere. 

35* 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

receiving  the  report  of  his  wife's  interrogatory  from 
Berthier,  was  unable  to  restrain  his  tears.  "  Ah !  the 
wretched  woman,"  cried  he,  "  she  knows  well  that  I 
have  always  loved  and  honoured  her,  and  that  she 
cared  nothing  for  me,  and  that  her  bad  behaviour  has 
for  a  long  time  been  the  cause  of  our  separation."  l 

On  November  10,  1599,  the  Papal  commissioners 
declared  the  marriage  of  Henri  and  Marguerite  null  and 
void,  d,e  facto  et  de  jure  ;  on  December  17,  the  dissolution 
was  confirmed  by  the  Parlement,  on  account  of  blood 
relationship,  "  spiritual  affinity," 2  violence,  and  the 
failure  of  one  of  the  parties  to  consent  to  it,  and  on  the 
22nd,  the  decree  was  proclaimed  "solemnly  and  publicly," 
with  open  doors,  in  the  Church  of  Saint-Germain 
1'Auxerrois. 

On  the  day  following  the  confirmation  of  the  divorce 
by  the  Parlement,  Henri  IV.  despatched  the  Comte  de 
Beaumont  to  Usson  to  announce  the  fact  to  Marguerite, 
and  to  hand  her  the  following  letter  : 

HENRI  IV.  to  MARGUERITE. 

"  MY  SISTER, — The  persons  delegated  by  our  very  holy 
father  to  decide  upon  the  nullity  of  our  marriage,  having 
at  length  pronounced  their  decision  to  our  common 
desire  and  satisfaction,  I  did  not  wish  to  defer  longer 
visiting  you  on  such  an  occasion,  both  to  inform  you 
of  it  on  my  part,  and  to  renew  the  assurances  of  my 
affection  for  you.  Meanwhile,  I  am  sending  to  you 

1  Histoire  de  Henri  IV. ,  p.  384. 

2  Henri  II. 's,  Marguerite's  father,  had  stood  godfather  to  Henri  of 
Navarre,  in  1554.     The  argument  was   that  this  spiritual  affinity  had 
required  a  special  Papal  dispensation,  and  that  that  sent  by  Gregory  XIII., 
in  October  1572,  only  applied  to  the  blood  relationship. 

359 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

the  Sire  de  Beaumont  expressly  to  perform  this  service, 
whom  I  have  commanded  to  tell  you,  my  sister,  that  if 
God  has  permitted  the  tie  of  our  union  to  be  dissolved, 
His  divine  justice  has  done  it  as  much  for  our  private 
repose  as  for  the  public  welfare  of  the  realm.  I  desire 
you  also  to  believe  that  I  do  not  intend  to  cherish  and 
love  you  the  less,  on  account  of  what  has  taken  place, 
than  I  did  heretofore ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  I 
intend  to  exercise  more  solicitude  than  ever  in  regard  to 
everything  which  concerns  you,  and  to  make  you  recognise, 
on  all  occasions,  that  I  do  not  intend  to  be  henceforth 
your  brother  merely  in  name,  but  also  in  deed.  .  .  . 
Further,!  am  very  satisfied  with  the  frankness  and  candour 
of  your  prudence,  and  I  trust  that  God  will  bless  the  rest 
of  our  days,  by  a  fraternal  friendship  accompanied  by 
a  public  felicity,  which  will  render  them  very  happy. 
Console  yourself  then,  I  beg  you,  my  sister,  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  both,  with  the  assurance  that  I  give  you 
of  contributing  on  my  side  everything  which  you  have 
the  right  to  expect,  and  which  will  be  in  the  power  of 
your  affectionate  brother." 

To  which  letter  Marguerite  replied : 

MARGUERITE  to  HENRI  IV. 

"  MONSEIGNEUR, — Your  Majesty,  in  imitation  of  the 
gods,  does  not  rest  content  with  overwhelming  his 
creatures  with  benefits  and  favours,  but  designs  further 
to  consider  and  console  them  in  their  affliction.  This 
honour,  which  is  the  proof  of  his  benevolence,  is  so  great 
that  it  cannot  be  equalled,  except  by  the  infinite  willing- 
ness wherewith  I  have  devoted  myself  to  his  service.  I 
do  not  require,  on  this  occasion,  less  consolation,  for, 

360 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

although  it  may  be  easy  to  console  oneself  for  the  loss 
of  some   of   Fortune's   benefits,   respect    alone    for    the 
merit  of  a  King  so  perfect  and  so  valorous  must  deprive 
one  of  all  consolation  ;  and  it  is  the  mark  of  the  generosity 
of  a  noble  soul  to  preserve   an  eternal  regret,  such  as 
would  be  mine,  were  it  not  that  the  happiness  which  it 
pleases  him  to  make  me  feel,  in  assuring  me  of  his  favour 
and  protection,  did  not  banish  it,  to  transform  my  com- 
plaining into  praise  of  his  goodness,  and  of  the  favours 
which  it  pleases  him  to  confer  upon  me,  wherewith  your 
Majesty  will    never  honour  any  one  who  acknowledges 
them  with  so  much  reverence,  by  the  very  humble  and 
very  faithful  services,  which  render  me  worthy  to  be 
deemed  by  your  Majesty  his  very  humble  and  affectionate 
servant,  sister,  and  subject." 

By  letters  patent,  dated  December  29,  1599,  Henri  IV. 
preserved  to  Marguerite  the  title  of  Queen  and  Duchesse 
de  Valois,  and  confirmed  her  and  her  successors  in  the 
enjoyment  of  tke  domains  of  the  Agenais,  Condom ois, 
and  Rouergue,  and,  in  short,  in  all  the  lands  that  con- 
stituted her  dowry  and  the  donations  of  1582. 

The  King  was  divorced,  but  he  was  not  yet  re-married. 
While  his  Ministers  were  haggling  with  the  Duke  of 
Tuscany  over  the  price  at  which  their  master  should  sell 
his  hand,  his  Majesty  had  once  more  lost  the  heart  which 
he  had  fondly  imagined  was  buried  in  poor  Gabrielle's 
grave.  Scarcely  two  months  after  his  mistress's  death, 
his  love — to  borrow  his  own  expression — had  "  put  forth 
another  branch,"  and  one  that  threatened  to  bear  fruit 
of  a  most  embarrassing  kind. 

On  his  way  from  Fontainebleau  to  Blois,  in  June  1599, 

361 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Henri  had  broken  his  journey  at  the  Chateau  of  Males- 
herbes,  where  resided  Francois  de  Balzac  d'Entragues, 
Governor  of  Orleans,  who  had  married  Marie  Touchet, 
the  mistress  of  Charles  IX.,  and  the  mother  of  Charles 
de  Valois,  Comte  d'Angoule'me,  to  whom  Catherine  de' 
Medici  had  bequeathed  her  county  of  Auvergne,  to 
the  exclusion  of  Marguerite.  By  her  marriage  with 
d'Entragues,'  Marie  had  three  children,  of  whom  one,  a 
daughter,  named  Henriette,  made  so  great  an  impres- 
sion on  the  quasi-widower  that  he  was  quite  unable  to 
tear  himself  away,  and  when  at  length  he  quitted 
Malesherbes,  it  was  to  accompany  his  new  charmer  and 
her  mother  to  Paris. 

Henriette  was  not  strictly  beautiful ;  but  she  was 
witty,  vivacious,  and  charming.  Though  but  eighteen, 
she  was  very  much  alive  to  her  own  interests,  and,  coun- 
selled by  her  parents,  determined  that  the  brilliant  destiny 
of  which  death  had  deprived  her  predecessor  in  the  royal 
affections  should  be  hers.  The  enamoured  monarch 
loaded  her  with  costly  gifts,  and  employed  every  argu- 
ment he  could  think  of  to  overcome  her  resistance ; 
but  the  lady  was  adamant,  until,  in  despair,  he  placed 
in  her  hands  the  following  remarkable  document : 

"  We,  Henri,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  France 
and  Navarre,  promise  and  swear  before  God  and  by 
our  faith  and  kingly  word  to  Monsieur  Francois  de 
Balzac,  Sieur  d'Entragues,  &c.  &c.,  that  he,  giving  us 
to  be  our  consort  (pour  compagne)  demoiselle  Henriette 
Catherine  de  Balzac,  his  daughter,  provided  that  within 
six  months  from  the  present  date  she  become  pregnant 
and  bear  us  a  son,  that  forthwith  we  will  take  her  to  wife 
and  publicly  marry  her  in  the  face  of  Holy  Church,  in 
accordance  with  the  solemnities  required  in  such  cases." 

362 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

The  document  given  to  Henriette  was  not  the  original 
copy.  That  had  been  submitted  by  the  King  to  Sully, 
who  promptly  tore  it  up  before  his  Majesty's  eyes.  "  I 
think  you  must  be  mad !  "  exclaimed  Henri,  astonished 
at  such  boldness.  "  Would  to  God,  Sire,  I  was  the  only 
madman  in  France  !  "  exclaimed  the  privileged  Minister. 
He  then  proceeded  to  give  his  master  some  very  wholesome 
advice,  to  which  Henri  listened  somewhat  crestfallen. 
However,  it  had  no  effect,  for,  the  moment  Sully  had 
finished,  the  King  gathered  up  the  torn  pieces  of  paper 
and  retired  to  his  cabinet  to  draw  up  a  fresh  promise, 
which  he  duly  handed  to  his  enchantress,  who  carried 
it  about  in  her  pocket,  and  triumphantly  exhibited  it 
to  all  her  friends. 

Once  more,  however,  the  unexpected  came  to  save 
the  situation.  One  night,  the  room  in  which  the  sultana 
— now  become  Marquise  de  Verneuil — lay  was  struck 
by  lightning.  The  shock  caused  a  miscarriage,  and  the 
King,  holding  himself  released  from  his  promise,  there- 
upon decided  to  formally  demand  the  hand  of  Marie 
de'  Medici.  On  October  6,  1600,  Bellegarde,  acting  as 
proxy  for  his  master,  married  her  at  Florence ;  at  the 
beginning  of  the  following  December,  she  arrived  in 
France,  and  on  September  27,  1601,  gave  birth  to  the 
much  desired  Dauphin,  the  future  Louis  XIII. 


363 


CHAPTER    XXIV 

Last  years  of  Marguerite  at  Usson — Conspiracy  of  the  Comte 
d'Auvergne  and  the  d'Entragues — Marguerite  commences  a 
lawsuit  against  the  count,  over  the  estates  bequeathed  to  him 
by  Catherine — She  leaves  Usson  to  take  up  her  residence  at 
the  Chateau  of  Madrid,  at  Boulogne-sur-Seine — Her  arrival 
in  Paris — Interview  with  the  King  at  the  Chateau  of  Madrid 
— She  receives  a  visit  from  the  Dauphin — Her  reception  by 
their  Majesties  at  the  Louvre — Her  relations  with  the  Royal 
Family — She  takes  up  her  residence  at  the  H6tel  de  Sens — 
Assassination  of  her  favourite,  Saint-Julien — She  removes  to 
Issy,  gains  her  lawsuit,  and  builds  a  magnificent  h6tel  in  the 
Faubourg  Saint-Germain — Her  patronage  of  men-of-letters — 
She  organises  fetes  for  Marie  de'  Medici — Her  toilettes 
criticised  from  the  pulpit — Her  favourite,  Bajaumont — Her 
charity — Her  benefactions  to  the  Augustines — Coronation  of 
Marie  de'  Medici — Assassination  of  Henri  IV.  by  Ravaillac 
— Marguerite's  discreet  conduct  during  the  Regency — Splendid 
ball  given  by  her  in  August  1612 — Her  last  years  and  death 
— Her  character  variously  estimated. 

FOR  nearly  five  years  after  her  divorce  from  Henri  IV., 
Marguerite  remained  at  Usson,  although  the  King  had 
given  her  permission  to  reside  where  she  pleased,  with 
the  exception  of  Paris  and  its  environs,  doubtless  being 
of  opinion  that,  both  for  political  and  domestic  reasons, 
it  might  be  as  well  if  his  discarded  consort  did  not  appear 
in  the  capital,  at  least  for  some  time  to  come.  During 
these  years,  she  and  Henri  corresponded  frequently, 
and  always  in  affectionate  terms,  addressing  one  another 
as  brother  and  sister.  There  were,  however,  occasional 

364 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

little  misunderstandings  on  financial  matters,  and  Mar- 
guerite was  highly  indignant  when  Aiguillon  was  erected 
into  a  durhy,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Due  de  Mayenne, 
and  to  the  prejudice  of  her  own  rights  as  Comtesse 
d'Agenais.  "  To  my  superior,  to  whom  I  owe  every- 
thing, I  have  surrendered  everything,"  she  writes. 
"  To  my  inferiors,  to  whom  I  owe  nothing,  I  surrender 
nothing."  In  consequence  of  her  protests,  a  compromise 
was  effected ;  Aiguillon  remained  a  duchy,  but  the 
princess  retained  all  the  rights  and  privileges  she  had 
formerly  possessed  there. 

As  the  years  went  by,  Marguerite  began  to  grow  weary 
of  her  mountain  chateau,  whose  isolation,  so  great  an 
advantage  during  the  turmoil  of  the  civil  wars,  now 
appeared  to  her  in  quite  another  light,  and  to  cast  about 
her  for  a  pretext  for  returning  to  Paris  and  the  gay  world 
from  which  she  had  been  so  long  separated.  Nor  had 
she  far  to  seek.  Implicated  in  the  conspiracy  of  Biron,1 
the  cowardly  and  cunning  Charles  de  Valois,  Comte 
d'Angouleme,  who,  since  Catherine's  bequest,  had 
assumed  the  title  of  Comte  d'Auvergne,  had  been  par- 
doned, but,  two  years  later,  he,  together  with  his  step- 
father, d'Entragues,  and  his  half-sister,  Madame  de 
Verneuil,  were  actively  intriguing  with  Spain.  All  three 
were  arrested  (June  1604),  and  a  voluminous  corre- 
spondence between  the  conspirators  and  the  Court  of 
Madrid  discovered,  containing  proposals  for  the  assassina- 
tion of  Henri  IV.  and  a  promise  signed  by  Philip  III. 
to  recognise  Henriette's  son  as  heir  to  the  French  throne, 
in  the  event  of  the  King's  death.  To  save  his  life, 

1  Charles  de  Gontaut,  son  of  the  old  marshal  who  had  blockaded 
Ne"rac  during  the  "  Lovers'  War."  He  was  beheaded  in  front  of  the 
Bastille,  July  31,  1602. 

365 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

d'Entragues  surrendered  the  famous  promise  of  marriage 
which  Henri  IV.  had  given  his  daughter  five  years  before, 
and,  though  found  guilty  of  high  treason,  he  was  released, 
as  was  Henriette,  while  the  Comte  d'Auvergne  was  sent 
to  the  Bastille,  where  he  remained  eleven  years. 

Marguerite,  who  had  conceived  a  not  unnatural 
antipathy  to  the  nephew  who  had  supplanted  her,  had 
watched  that  gentleman's  proceedings  in  Auvergne  very 
closely,  and,  as  early  as  March  1600,  had  written  to  the 
King,  warning  him  to  be  on  his  guard  against  him.  She 
now  seized  the  occasion  of  his  disgrace  to  beg  Henri's 
permission  to  lay  claim  before  the  Parlement  of  Paris 
to  the  estates  which  Catherine  had  bequeathed  him. 
Catherine,  it  appeared,  had  really  had  no  power  to 
alienate  her  property  from  her  family,  since  one  of  the 
clauses  of  her  marriage-contract  stipulated  that,  on  her 
death,  her  estates  should  pass  to  her  sons,  and,  in  default  of 
sons,. to  her  daughters.  The  King  authorised  Marguerite 
to  plead,  and,  in  return,  she  promised  that,  if  successful, 
she  would  bequeath  the  property  to  the  Dauphin. 

Under  the  pretext  of  being  near  at  hand  during  the 
progress  of  her  suit,  she  next  sought  Henri's  permission 
to  leave  Usson  and  take  up  her  residence  at  the  Chateau 
of  Madrid,  at  Boulogne-sur-Seine.1  This  request  was 
also  granted,  the  more  readily,  since  she  had  warned 
the  King  that  she  was  in  possession  of  some  important 
information  affecting  the  welfare  of  the  State.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Marguerite,  with  a  skill  and  persistency 
not  unworthy  of  her  mother,  had  contrived  to  penetrate 

1  The  Chateau  of  Madrid  was  a  residence  of  the  Valois  family 
iituated  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine,  on  the  borders  of  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne.  It  had  been  built  by  Fran9ois  I.,  from  designs  by  Bernard 
de  Palissy,  on  the  King's  release  from  his  captivity  in  Spain.  Hence 
its  name. 

366 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

the  designs  of  her  old  admirer,  Turenne,  now  Due  de 
Bouillon,  whose  conspiracy  was  the  continuation  of 
those  of  Biron  and  the  Comte  d'Auvergne. 

The  princess  quitted  Usson,  which  had  been  her  home 
for  nearly  twenty  years,  at  the  beginning  of  July  1605, 
escorted  to  the  boundary  of  the  province  by  nearly  all 
the  chief  nobles  of  Auvergne.  At  Cercottes,  near 
Orleans,  she  was  met  by  Sully,  on  his  way  to  preside  over 
a  Huguenot  assembly  which  was  about  to  meet  at  Chatel- 
lerault.  Marguerite  acquainted  him  with  what  she 
had  learned  concerning  Bouillon's  intrigues ;  but  the 
Minister  appears  to  have  been  somewhat  incredulous, 
and  wrote  to  the  King  that  what  she  had  told  him 
"  contained  as  much  falseness  as  truth."1  However,  the 
princess's  information  was  confirmed  from  other  quarters, 
and  Henri  lost  no  time  in  taking  energetic  measures 
against  Bouillon,  who  was  forced  to  sue  for  pardon. 

The  King,  still  somewhat  uneasy  as  to  the  effect  of 
the  return  of  his  first  wife  to  the  capital,  would  have 
preferred  if  she  had  stopped  at  Chenonceaux  and  there 
taken  up  her  residence,  in  which  case  he  expressed  his 
willingness  to  purchase  it  from  the  Duchesse  de  Mercoeur, 
to  whom  the  chateau  belonged.2  But  Marguerite  had 
set  her  heart  on  Boulogne ;  and,  after  the  proofs  of  her 
zeal  for  his  service  which  she  had  just  given,  Henri  felt 
that  it  would  be  ungracious  to  refuse  her,  and  determined 
to  give  her  a  reception  worthy  of  her  rank.  On  hei 
arrival  at  Longjumeau,  on  July  15,  she  was  met  by 
Diane  de  France,  natural  daughter  of  Henri  II.  and 

1  Sully,  (Economies  royales. 

2  Chenonceaux  had  been  bequeathed   by  Catherine  to   Henri  III.'s 
Queen,  Louise  de  Vaudemont,  who  bestowed  it  on  the  Due  de  Vendome, 
but   it   had   lately    passed   into   the    possession    of    the    Duchesse   de 
Mercocur. 

367 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Philippe  des  Dues,  and  widow  en  second.es  noces  of  Francis, 
Marechal  de  Montmorency,  who  accompanied  her  as 
far  as  the  Faubourg  Saint-Jacques.  In  crossing  from 
the  left  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Seine,  the  Queen  appears 
to  have  been  much  struck  by  the  improvements  which 
had  been  executed  in  Paris  since  that  August  day,  twenty- 
two  years  since,  when  she  had  quitted  it  in  such  an  agony 
of  shame,  at  the  bidding  of  her  malevolent  brother. 
What  a  change  had  taken  place  in  the  fortunes  of  her 
family  since  then  !  Henri,  Anjou,  and  Catherine  were 
dead  ;  a  new  dynasty  dwelt  in  the  palace  of  her  ancestors, 
and  she  re-entered  Paris  as  the  last  legitimate  repre- 
sentative of  the  once  great  House  of  Valois  ! 

A  link  with  the  past  awaited  her  on  the  steps  of  the 
Chateau  of  Madrid.  It  was  none  other  than  her  old 
lover,  Harlay  de  Chanvallon,  who  had  come  with  the 
young  Due  de  Vendome,  Henri  IV.'s  eldest  son  by 
Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  and  the  Seigneurs  de  Roquelaure 
et  de  Chateauvieux,  Marie  de'  Medici's  chevalier  d'honneur, 
to  bid  her  welcome  in  the  name  of  their  Majesties. 
Dupleix  declares  that  the  presence  of  Chanvallon,  "  lequel 
elle  avoit  autrefois  plus  aime  qu?  elle  ne  devoit"  coupled 
with  that  of  a  natural  son  of  the  King,  was  not  considered 
in  good  taste.  But,  however  that  may  be,  Marguerite 
seems  to  have  been  very  pleased  with  her  reception, 
and  the  following  day  wrote  a  very  flattering  letter  to 
Henri  IV.,  thanking  him  for  his  attentions,  and  expressing 
herself  greatly  delighted  with  M.  de  Vendome.  "  It 
is  easy  to  see,"  she  writes,  "  that  he  is  of  royal  birth, 
since  he  is  as  beautiful  in  person  as  he  is  in  advance  of 
his  age  in  intelligence.  I  believe  that  God  has  given 
him  to  your  Majesty,  in  order  that  you  may  receive  from 
him  some  great  service  and  satisfaction.  I  was  never 

368 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

more  enchanted  than  whilst  admiring  this  marvel  of 
childhood,  so  full  of  wisdom  and  of  serious  conversation. 
In  truth,  this  royal  creation  is  worthy  of  your  Majesty, 
wko  never  produces  anything,  either  animate  or  inanimate, 
which  is  not  out  of  the  common  way."  1 

A  week  later,  Henri  IV.  himself  came  to  visit  the 
princess.  "  If,"  remarks  M.  de  la  Ferriere,  "  he  had  not 
expected  to  see  Marguerite  again,  he  would  have  been 
able  to  ask  the  same  question  as  that  Russian  diplomatist, 
the  Baron  de  M  .  .  .  who,  separated  from  his  baroness, 
who  had  resided  in  Paris  for  more  than  twenty  years, 
and  seeing  her  enter  a  drawing-room  in  St.  Petersburg, 
whispered  to  the  lady  of  the  house  :  '  Who  is  that  fat  old 
woman  ?  '  '  That  is  your  wife,'  was  the  smiling  reply." 

Time,  indeed,  had  dealt  hardly  with  Marguerite  de 
Valois.  When  she  had  parted  from  her  husband  at  Nerac, 
in  March  1585,  she  had  been  still  almost  in  the  zenith 
of  her  beauty ;  now  when  they  met  again,  after  their 
long  separation,  she  was  in  her  fifty- third  year,  and  nothing 
was  left  of  the  charms  which  had  captivated  so  many 
hearts,  save  her  magnificent  eyes,  which  still  sparkled 
with  all  their  old-time  vivacity.  In  place  of  her  abundant 
locks,  dark  as  the  raven's  wing,  which  she  had  prematurely 
lost,  she  wore  an  enormous  coiffure  of  flaxen  hair  "  half 
a  foot  higher  than  the  coiffures  then  in  vogue  "  As 
for  her  figure,  once  so  slender  and  graceful,  though 
Tallemant  des  Reaux  is  probably  guilty  of  exaggeration 
when  he  describes  her  as  "  horribly  stout,"  a  portrait 
painted  of  her  in  the  autumn  of  that  same  year,  shows 
that  she  had  developed  a  very  decided  tendency  to 
embonpoint,  while  her  features  had  become  distinctly 
coarse. 

The  King,  who  had  arrived  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
1  Memolres  et  lettres  de  Marguerite  de  Valo'u  (edit.  Guessard). 

369  2  A 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

evening,  remained  until  after  ten  L'Estoile  reports 
that,  before  taking  his  leave,  he  made  two  requests  of 
his  "  sister  "  :  the  first,  that,  for  the  sake  of  her  health, 
she  should  cease  turning  night  into  day,  and  day  into 
night ;  the  second,  that  she  should  place  some  bounds 
to  her  liberality  and  be  a  little  less  lavish  in  her  expendi- 
ture. To  which  the  princess  replied  that,  at  her  age,  it 
was  difficult  to  change  her  habits,  and  that  her  generous 
instincts  were  inherited,  and  that  it  was  impossible  for 
her  not  to  yield  to  them. 

Marguerite,  having  expressed  herself  very  anxious 
to  see  the  Dauphin,  the  King  sent  him  to  visit  her  on 
August  6.  She  was  taking  the  air  in  her  litter  on  the 
Rueil  road  when  the  little  prince  appeared  in  Marie  de' 
Medici's  coach.  On  perceiving  the  Queen's  litter, 
he  alighted,  while  Marguerite  did  the  same.  When  they 
were  a  few  paces  from  one  another,  the  Dauphin  raised 
his  hat,  and  exclaimed  :  "  Vous  soyez  la  bien  venue^ 
maman  ma  fille  !  "  by  which  title  he  had  been  instructed 
to  address  her.  Then,  hastening  forward,  he  embraced 
her,  and  Marguerite,  in  returning  his  kiss,  said  :  "  How 
handsome  you  are  !  You  have  certainly  the  royal  air 
of  commanding,  as  you  will  do  one  day."  On  the 
morrow,  Madame  de  Lansac,  her  dame  d'honneur,  brought 
to  the  Dauphin,  from  her  mistress,  a  little  figure  of  a 
Cupid,  with  diamond  eyes,  seated  on  a  dolphin  made 
of  emeralds,  and  a  little  scimitar,  the  hilt  of  which  was 
studded  with  jewels.  She  offered,  at  the  same  time, 
to  Henri's  little  daughter  Elisabeth  (afterwards  Queen 
of  Spain),  a  head-band  of  diamonds,  and  a  gilded  vase 
and  basin  to  the  Dauphin's  nurse.1 

On    August    28,    Marguerite   was   received   by   their 

»  Journal  de  J.  Heroard. 
370 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

Majesties,  at  the  Louvre,  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  of 
curious  courtiers.  Henri  IV.  advanced  to  the  centre  of 
the  courtyard  to  meet  his  ex-consort,  and  led  her  by  the 
hand  to  present  her  to  Marie  de'  Medici,  who  had  re- 
mained at  the  foot  of  the  grand  staircase.  Regarding, 
as  she  did,  her  predecessor  with  far  from  a  friendly  eye, 
the  Queen  had  declined  to  advance  any  further,  although 
the  King  had  reminded  her  sharply  that  to  a  princess 
of  Marguerite's  illustrious  birth  the  very  highest  honours 
were  due 

The  meeting  between  these  two  women  invested 
with  the  same  title,  must  have  been  decidedly  piquant, 
and  provoked  inevitable  comparisons.  These,  it  would 
appear,  were  altogether  to  Marguerite's  advantage, 
for  while  the  Medici  seemed  confused  and  ill  at  ease, 
the  Valois  princess  exhibited  the  perfect  dignity  and 
charming  courtesy  which  were  naturally  hers  ;  and  public 
sympathy  was  almost  entirely  on  her  side. 

Henri  IV.,  as  we  have  mentioned,  had  been  somewhat 
doubtful  as  to  the  wisdom  of  permitting  Marguerite 
to  return  to  the  capital,  but  none  of  his  fears  were 
realised.  On  the  contrary,  far  from  seeking  to  foment 
discord,  the  princess  came  with  an  olive  branch  in  her 
hand,  and  it  was  largely  due  to  her  influence  that  several 
of  the  old  nobility  who  had  hitherto  held  aloof  from 
the  new  dynasty  became  reconciled  to  it. 

Shortly  after  her  reception  at  the  Louvre,  the  King 
invited  Marguerite  to  spend  some  days  with  the  Royal 
Family  at  Saint-Germain.  She  accepted,  and  a  friendly 
intimacy  was  quickly  established  between  her  and  the 
new  menage.  Now  that  they  were  no  longer  husband 
and  wife,  Henri  and  Marguerite  were  the  best  of  friends, 
and  the  King,  who  had  always  entertained  a  very  high 

37i 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

opinion  of  the  princess's  intelligence,  would  seem  to 
have  consulted  her  frequently  on  important  matters. 
Marie  de'  Medici,  too,  finding  that  she  had  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  woman  she  had  supplanted,  yielded  to 
the  charm  of  Marguerite's  society,  and  Heroard  relates, 
in  his  Journa1^  that  one  morning  he  saw  the  ex-Queen 
on  her  knees  beside  her  successor's  bed,  on  which  sat 
Henri  IV.  with  the  Dauphin,  who  was  playing  with  a 
little  dog. 

The  Princes  of  the  Blood,  the  Ambassadors  of  all  the 
Powers,  and  the  great  nobles  came  to  the  Bois  de  Boulogne 
to  pay  homage  to  the  princes*  ;  but  Marguerite  soon 
grew  tired  of  the  Chateau  of  Madrid,  and,  profiting  by 
the  amicable  relations  she  had  established  with  the  King 
and  Queen,  demanded  and  obtained  permission  to  take 
up  her  residence  in  Paris  itself.  In  December  1605, 
she  rented  the  Hotel  de  Sens,1  situated  in  the  Rue  du 
Figuier,  at  the  corner  of  the  Rue  de  la  Mortellerie,  where 
she  surrounded  herself  with  a  little  Court  of  poets, 
musicians,  savants,  and  theologians. 

But  here,  too,  her  sojourn  was  but  a  brief  one  ;    for, 

i  This  h&tel,  which  had  been  built,  in  1475,  by  Tristan  de  Salzagar, 
and  enlarged,  under  Francois  I.,  by  Cardinal  du  Prat,  was  the  official 
residence   of  the   Archbishop  of  Sens,   Metropolitan    of  Paris,   until 
Paris  was  made  an  archbishopric  in  1622.     At  this  period,  it  was  occu 
pied  by  Renaud  de  Baune,  Primate  and  Grand  Almoner  of  France 
L'Estoile  tells  us  that  the  piquancy  of  a  princess  with  so  great  a  re 
putation  for  gallantry  installing  herself  in   an  archbishop's  palace  did 
not  escape  the  notice   of  the  rhymesters  of  the  day  ;  and  one  fine 
morning,  the  following  verses  were  found  posted  on  the  door  : 

"  Comme  reine  tu  devras  etre 
En  ta  royale  maison  ; 
Comme  putain,  c'est  bien  raison 
Qu  tu  loge  au  logis  d'un  pretrc." 
372 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

in  less  than  four  months,  a  most  tragic  event  decided 
her  to  quit  the  Hotel  de  Sens. 

Among  the  members  of  Marguerite's  suite  was  a 
youth  of  some  twenty  summers,  the  son  of  one  Date, 
a  carpenter  of  Aries,  who,  as  we  have  mentioned  else- 
where, had,  since  entering  her  Majesty's  service,  blos- 
somed into  a  Sieur  de  Saint-Julien.  This  Saint-Julien, 
if  we  are  to  believe  the  chroniclers  of  the  time,  was 
passionately  beloved  by  his  royal  mistress,1  though 
perhaps,  as  a  charitable  biographer  suggests,  her  affection 
for  him  may  have  been  "  merely  platonic  and  maternal." 
However  that  may  be,  he  stood  on  the  very  pinnacle  of 
favour,  and  was  regarded  with  envy  and  hatred  by  his  less 
fortunate  colleagues.  One  of  these  rivals,  Vermont  by 
name,  either  because  he  was  jealous  of  the  privileges 
which  Saint-Julien  enjoyed  or,  more  probably,  because 
he  believed  that  the  favourite  had  used  his  influence 
with  the  Queen  to  procure  the  disgrace  of  certain  mem- 
bers of  his  family,  suspected  of  having  aided  the  Comte 
d'Auvergne's  intrigues,  swore  to  be  avenged.  Nor  was 
his  vow  an  idle  one,  for,  on  the  morning  of  April  5,  1606, 
at  the  very  moment  when  Saint-Julien  was  assisting  Mar- 
guerite to  alight  from  her  coach,  on  her  return  from 
hearing  Mass  at  the  Celestines,  he  stepped  forward,  and, 
levelling  a  pistol,  shot  him  dead. 

The  assassin  endeavoured  to  escape,  but  was  pursued 
and  overtaken  near  the  Porte  Saint-Denis.  The  bereaved 
princess,  beside  herself  with  rage  and  grief,  vowed  that 
she  would  neither  eat  nor  drink  until  justice  had  been 
done,  and  forthwith  wrote  to  the  King  the  following 
letter  : 

1  " .  .  .  Saint  Julien,  kquel  ladite  Roine  aimoit  paaionement? 
L'Estoile. 

373 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

MARGUERITE  to  HENRI  IV. 

April  5,  1606. 

"  MONSEIGNEUR, — An  assassination  has  just  been  com- 
mitted, at  the  door  of  my  hotel,  before  my  eyes,  opposite 
my  coach,  by  a  son  of  Vermont,  who  has  shot  with  a  pistol 
one  of  my  gentlemen  named  Saint- Julien.  I  beg  your 
Majesty  very  humbly  to  order  justice  to  be  done,  and 
not  to  be  pleased  to  pardon  him.  If  this  crime  is  not 
punished,  no  one  will  be  able  to  live  in  security.  I  beg 
your  Majesty  very  humbly  to  be  pleased  that  the  assassin 
should  be  punished." 

The  King  sent  orders  for  Vermont  to  be  brought  to 
trial  without  an  hour's  delay ;  and  he  was  condemned 
to  death,  and  executed  the  following  morning,  in  front 
of  the  Hotel  de  Sens,  "  declaring  aloud,"  writes  L'Estoile, 
"  that  he  cared  not  about  dying,  since  he  had  accom- 
plished his  purpose." 

From  a  window  of  her  hotel  Marguerite  witnessed 
the  execution  ;  but  she  had  presumed  too  much  upon 
her  strength,  and,  being  taken  ill  during  the  night, 
resolved  to  leave  without  delay  the  Hotel  de  Sens,  which, 
she  felt,  must  henceforth  hold  for  her  such  tragic  memo- 
ries. Accordingly,  a  day  or  two  later,  she  removed  from 
the  Rue  du  Figuier  to  a  house  at  Issy,  belonging  to  a 
wealthy  goldsmith  named  La  Haye,  pursued  by  the 
malicious  verses  in  which  the  Parisians  of  those  days 
took  so  much  delight . 

"  La  Reine  Venus  demi-morte 
De  voir  mourir  (levant  sa  porte 
Son  Adonis,  son  cher  amour 
Pour  vengeance  a  devant  sa  porte 
Fait  d6faire  en  la  meme  place 
L'assassin  presque  au  me'me  jour." 
374 


QUEEN    MARGOT 

Soon  after  the  tragic  end  of  Saint-Julien,1  the  princess 
gained  her  lawsuit  against  the  Comte  d'Auvergne,  and 
was  adjudged  the  rightful  owner  of  the  counties  of  Au- 
vergne  and  Clermont,  and  the  rest  of  the  estates  of 
Catherine.  She  at  once  executed  a  deed  conveying 
them  to  the  Dauphin,  with  the  condition,  however, 
that  the  estates  in  question  should  be  reunited  to  the 
Crown,  and  should  never  again  be  alienated.  She 
reserved  the  revenues  to  herself  during  her  life-time, 
but,  shortly  afterwards,  surrendered  them,  in  return  for 
a  handsome  pension. 

This  augmentation  of  her  income  enabled  her  to 
purchase  the  house  at  Issy,  where  she  caused  a  good 
many  improvements  to  be  executed,  and  laid  out  some 
charming  gardens.  But,  though  she  remained  at  Issy 
until  late  in  the  following  winter,  through  fear  of  the 
plague,  which  was  devastating  Paris,  she  used  it  hence- 
forth merely  as  a  summer  residence,  and  acquired  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Seine,  facing  the  Louvre,  a  large  plot 
of  jiland,  part  of  which  belonged  to  the  University, 
and  part  to  the  "  Freres  de  la  Charite," 2  where  she 
proceeded  to  construct  a  magnificent  hotel.  She  also 
purchased  part  of  the  old  Pre-aux-Clercs,  the  scene 
of  so  many  duels,  which  she  converted  into  an  immense 
park,  extending  as  far  as  what  is  now  the  Rue  des 
Saints-Peres. 

In  this  hotel,  which  was  finally  completed  in  1608, 
the  old  Queen  spent  the  last  years  of  her  life,  paying 

1  She  commissioned  the  poet  Francois  Maynard  to  commemorate 
Saint-Julien's  death  in  verses,  wherein  the  ill-fated  youth  figures  under 
the  name  of  Damon. 

*  Founded  by  Jean  de  Dieu.  They  devoted  themselves  to  minuter- 
ing  to  the  sick  poor,  ami  were  skilled  in  surgery  and  medicine. 

375 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

however,  occasional  visits  to  Issy,  her  chateau  at  Boulogne 
sur-Seine,  and  the  royal  residences  around  Paris.  The 
friendship  which  she  showed  for  men-of-letters,  savants, 
and  musicians,  drew  many  of  them  around  her,  amongst 
whom  may  be  mentioned  Francois  Maynard — whom 
she  made  her  secretary — Porcheres,  Garnier,  and  the 
moralist  Pilhard.  It  was  her  custom,  Etienne  Pasquier 
tells  us,  to  invite  three  or  four  of  her  literary  proteges 
to  dinner  or  supper  almost  every  day,  propose  to  them 
some  subject  of  discussion,  and  encourage  each  to  state 
his  views  at  length ;  she  herself  joining  freely  in  the 
debate,  as  she  delighted  to  show  that  her  intellect  had 
lost  none  of  its  keenness.1  Her  hotel,  however,  resembled 
a  Court  far  more  than  the  residence  of  a  private  individual, 
for  she  always  lived  en  souveraine,  and  abated  nothing 
of  the  ceremonial  to  which  she  had  been  accustomed. 

She  does  not  seem  to  have  regretted  the  place  which 
she  had  ceded  to  another,  and  remained  on  the  best 
of  terms  with  Marie  de'  Medici.  It  was  to  her  predeces- 
sor, who  remembered  the  magnificent  fetes  given  by 
Catherine,  that  the  new  Queen  had  recourse  when  she 
intended  to  organise  some  particularly  great  reception. 
Thus  her  Majesty  begged  Marguerite's  assistance  when 
she  wished  to  receive,  according  to  the  etiquette  of  the 
Valois  Court,  Don  Pedro  de  Toledo,  Constable  of 
Castile  and  Ambassador  of  Philip  III.,  and,  in  January 
1609,  we  hear  of  a  great  Court  reception  being  post- 
poned for  a  week,  owing  to  the  illness  of  Queen  Mar- 
guerite, "  Vorganisatrice  et  la  maitresse  veritable"  When 
it  took  place,  after  a  ball  at  the  Arsenal,  their  Majes- 
ties adjourned  to  Marguerite's  hotel,  where  they  were 

1  Etienne  Pasquier,  Lettres,  ii.  761.  M.  Charles  Merki,  L-a  Reine 
Margot  et  la  Jin  det  Vahis,  p.  421. 

376 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

entertained  to  a  superb  "  collation,"  which  was  said  to 
have  cost  4000  ecus,  and  at  which  appeared  three  silver 
dishes,  "  one  of  which  bore  an  orange-tree,  another  a 
lemon-tree,  and  a  third  a  pomegranate-tree,  so  dex- 
terously and  cleverly  imitated  and  disguised  that  no 
one  could  tell  that  they  were  not  real  plants." 

The  princess  stood  godmother  to  Henri's  second  son 
Gaston,  Due  d'Orleans,  and  seems  to  have  been  much 
attached  to  the  royal  children,  and,  in  particular  to 
the  Dauphin.  Writing  to  Henri  IV.,  during  his  absence 
from  Paris,  in  May  1606,  she  informs  him  that  she  has 
had  the  honour  of  kissing  the  hand  of  Monsieur  le 
Dauphin,  and  that  he  and  Mesdames  [the  princesses] 
are  growing  in  stature  and  beauty,  especially  the  Dauphin, 
"who  bears  upon  his  countenance,  and  in  all  his  royal 
actions,  the  true  imprint  of  what  he  is." 

Although  her  figure  had  become  so  unwieldy  that, 
according  to  Tallemant  des  Reaux,  "  it  y  avait  bien 
des  portes  ou  elle  ne  pouvait  passer,"  she  still  desired 
to  be  young,  and  refused  to  renounce  the  toilettes  of 
her  youth  ;  and  such  had  once  been  her  fame  as  a  leader 
of  the  mode  that  she  still  found  imitators.  "  To-day," 
writes  L'Estoile,  under  date  March  10,  1610,  "  the 
preacher  at  Notre-Dame,  Suffren  by  name,  a  Jesuit,  dis- 
coursing in  his  sermon  on  the  dissoluteness  and  licentious- 
ness of  women,  declared  that  there  was  not  in  all  Paris 
one  so  little  coquettish,  that  she  did  not  show  her  bosom, 
following  the  example  of  Queen  Marguerite."  Then, 
as  though  desirous  of  taking  back  his  words  (which  were 
judged  for  a  man  of  intelligence,  such  as  he  was,  to  have 
been  spoken  with  too  little  discretion),  having  paused  for 
a  moment,  he  went  on  to  say,  that  he  "  had  no  intention 
to  criticise  Queen  Marguerite,  and  that  many  things 

377 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

were  permissible   for  queens  which  were  forbidden  to 
others."  l 

And  she  still  continued  to  have  her  favourites.  The 
succession  to  the  post  of  the  defunct  Saint-Julien  was 
for  some  little  time  in  dispute,  but,  at  length,  victory 
remained  with  a  youth  named  Bajaumont.  Marguerite, 
however,  appears  to  have  brought  misfortune  to  those  who 
basked  in  her  smiles,  and,  like  the  mignons  of  Henri  III., 
they  nearly  all  met  with  premature  and  violent  deaths  : 
La  Mole  and  d'Aubiac  on  the  scaffold ;  Bussy,  Guise, 
the  hapless  apothecary  of  Carlat,  and  Saint-Julien  at 
the  hands  of  the  assassin  ;  though  in  the  case  of  Bussy  and 
of  Guise  their  tragic  ends  were,  of  course,  unconnected 
with  their  intimacy  with  the  Queen.  The  new  favourite 
was  more  fortunate,  but,  nevertheless,  had  to  defend 
his  life  with  his  sword  against  one  Loue,  the  son  of  an 
advocate  of  Bordeaux,  who,  one  day,  made  a  murderous 
attack  upon  him  in  the  Church  of  the  Augustines.  Fearful 
lest  Bajaumont  might  share  the  fate  of  his  predecessor 
in  her  affections,  Marguerite  caused  his  assailant  to  be 
arrested  and  shut  up  in  For  I'Eve'que,  to  cool  his  blood. 
But  soon  death  threatened  Bajaumont  in  another  form, 
and  he  fell  dangerously  ill.  The  old  Queen  was  in 
despair,  and  Henri  IV.  came  to  comfort  her.  It  would 
appear  that  his  ex-consort  had  contrived  to  extract  from 
him  considerable  sums  for  the  construction  of  her  hotel, 
for  when,  on  taking  his  departure,  the  King  passed 
through  a  room  where  several  of  Marguerite's  maids-of- 
honour  were  sitting,  "  he  begged  them  all  to  pray  for 
the  convalescence  of  Bajaumont,  and  that  he  would  give 
them  New  Year's  gifts.  '  For,  if  he  were  to  die/  said 
he ;  '  venire  Saint-Gris  !  it  would  cost  me  a  great  deaj 

1  Journal  de  Henri  IV. 
378 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

more,  since  I  should  have  to  buy  her  [Marguerite]  a 
new  house,  in  place  of  this  one,  where  she  would  never 
consent  to  remain.'  "  l 

Bajaumont  recovered,  but,  instead  of  being  grateful 
for  the  solicitude  of  his  royal  mistress,  would  appear  to 
have  presumed  on  her  favour,  for,  on  May  10,  1607,  we 
find  Henri  IV.  writing  to  Marie  de'  Medici :  "  I  have 
no  news,  save  that  yesterday  Marguerite  chastised  Bajau- 
mont, and  that  he  intends  to  leave  her."  However, 
they  were  reconciled,  and  in  September  1609,  L'Estoile 
reports  that  Bajaumont  had  again  been  taken  ill,  but  had 
recovered,  "  more  owing  to  the  kindness  of  his  mistress 
than  the  skill  of  his  doctor." 

Notwithstanding  these  follies — they  were  probably 
nothing  worse — Marguerite  seems  to  have  spent  much  of 
her  time  in  serious  reflection  and  devotion,  while  her 
charity  was  boundless.  She  dispensed  large  sums  in 
founding  and  endowing  hospitals,  convents,  churches, 
and  colleges.  Mathieu  de  Morgues  estimates  her  gifts 
to  the  religious  Orders  at  120,000  livres  a  year,  without 
counting  her  private  alms,  which  she  distributed  with 
lavish  hand,  though  with, it  is  to  be  feared,  more  generosity 
than  discretion ;  "  because,"  says  Richelieu,  "  she  pre- 
ferred to  give  to  an  undeserving  person  than  to  fail  to 
give  to  one  who  was  deserving."  2  Each  year  she  devoted 
a  considerable  sum  to  providing  poor  girls  with  the 

1  L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri  IV.     M.  de  Saint-Poncy  is  very  angry 
with  L'Estoile,  whom  he  accuses  of  shamefully  maligning  his  heroine  ; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  worthy  diarist  was  rather  prone  to 
jot  down  picturesque    anecdotes   without   troubling    himself  to  verify 
them. 

2  Me  moires  du  Cardinal  de  Richelieu. 

379 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

indispensable  dot,  another  to  assisting  struggling  artists 
and  men-of-letters,  political  refugees,  and  indigent 
foreigners.  At  Easter,  on  Ascension  Day,  on  Whit- 
Sunday,  at  Christmas,  and  on  her  birthday  (May  14), 
she  distributed  a  hundred  gold  crowns  and  as  many 
loaves  of  bread  to  a  hundred  poor  persons.  She  supported 
entirely  eleven  hundred  poor,  and  forty  refugee  Catholic 
priests  from  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  dis- 
tributed money  every  day,  at  the  gate  of  her  hotel,  on 
her  return  from  Mass ;  while  each  Holy  Week  she  made 
a  tour  of  the  hospitals  of  Paris,  and  distributed  between 
three  and  four  thousand  coverlets.1 

Although  all  the  religious  Orders  participated  in  her 
bounty,  the  Augustines  were  her  favourites.  In  the 
park  attached  to  her  hotel  in  the  Faubourg  Saint- 
Germain,  she  built  a  chapel  for  the  Augustins  dechausses? 
and  employed  the  best  artists  of  the  time  in  the 
decoration  of  its  interior.  The  first  stone  was  laid  by  the 
princess  on  March  21,  1608,  and  in  July  1610,  she 
commenced  building  them  a  convent  and  a  large  church. 
But  the  Augustins  dechausses  did  not  fulfil  certain 
conditions  which  their  benefactress  had  imposed  upon 
them,  so,  early  in  the  year  1613,  Marguerite,  having 
appealed  to  the  Pope,  ejected  them,  in  spite  of  their 
protestations,  and  replaced  them  by  the  Petits- Augustins , 
though  she  did  not  live  to  see  the  completion  of  her 
work.  The  Petits- Augustins  occupied  their  convent 

*  Comte  L6o  de  Saint-Poncy,  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Valois,  ii.  511, 
et  seq. 

*  There  were  at  this  period  in  Paris  four  Augustine  convents,  two  on 
the  right  and  two  on  the  left  bank  of  the   Seine  :  the  Vieux  Augustins, 
on  the  Quai  Saint-Eustache  ;  the  Augustins  dechausses,  called  the  Petlts- 
Peres;  the  Grands  Augustins  in  the  Quartier  Saint-Andre  des  Arcs,  and 
the  Petits  Augustins. 

380 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

until  the  Revolution,  when  they  were  expelled.  In 
1820,  the  cloister,  which  had,  in  the  meanwhile,  been 
converted  into  a  museum,  was  demolished.  Its  site 
is  now  occupied  by  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts. 

In  the  spring  of  1610,  the  preparations  for  a  general 
attack  on  the  possessions  of  the  House  of  Austria, 
which  Henri  IV.  had  so  long  been  meditating,  were 
completed.  The  King  himself  intended  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  army  which  was  to  operate  on  the  Rhine, 
in  conjunction  with  the  Protestant  princes  of  Germany 
and,  on  March  20,  he  signed  an  Ordinance  appointing 
Marie  de'  Medici  Regent  of  the  kingdom  during  his 
absence.  To  add  to  the  security  and  dignity  of  her 
position  and  make  her  claim  to  the  Regency,  in  the  event 
of  her  husband's  death,  more  indisputable,  Marie  urged 
him  to  allow  her  to  be  crowned  Queen  of  France.  To 
this  Henri  consented,  and  the  coronation  took  place 
at  Saint-Denis,  with  great  splendour,  on  May  13. 

Marguerite  was  invited  to  assist  at  the  ceremony. 
She  would  have  preferred  to  absent  herself,  for  it  was 
difficult  for  her  to  view  without  some  heartburnings 
the  final  triumph  of  the  woman  who  had  supplanted 
her.  But  Henri,  being  of  opinion  that  her  presence 
would  be  regarded,  so  to  speak,  as  the  consecration  of 
the  new  dynasty,  pressed  her  so  hard  that  she  finally 
consented  to  attend.  Her  dignity  was,  however,  somewhat 
ruffled  by  the  fact  that,  though  she  was  permitted  to 
wear  a  crown,  her  claim  to  a  mantle  entirely  covered 
with  fleurs-de-lys,  similar  to  that  worn  by  Marie  de' 
Medici,  was  not  allowed,  and,  still  more,  when 
Henri  IV.'s  little  nine-year-old  daughter  Elisabeth 
was  given  precedence  of  her  in  the  Queen's  procession. 

Both  princesses  were  attired   as   Daughters   of   France, 

381 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

in  bodices  of  cloth-of-silver,  with  tippets  of  ermine 
ornamented  with  jewels,  and  royal  mantles  of  violet 
velvet  lined  with  ermine  and  bordered  by  two  rows  of 
fleurs-de-lys.  The  train  of  Marguerite's  magnificent 
mantle,  which  she  subsequently  presented  to  the  Church 
of  Saint-Sulpice,  to  form  the  dais,  which  is  raised  above 
the  Holy  Sacrament  on  great  occasions,  was  borne  by 
the  Comtes  de  Curson  and  de  la  Rochefoucauld. 

That  afternoon  Marguerite  proceeded  to  Issy,  where, 
on  the  following  day  (May  14),  she  gave,  according  to 
her  custom,  a  fete  in  honour  of  her  birthday.  Dupleix 
relates  that,  in  the  evening,  he  had  been  talking  with  the 
old  Queen  of  the  many  great  events  which  had  taken  place 
on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month,  which  had  often  been 
very  favourable  for  France,  citing  the  Battle  of  Agnodel, 
gained  by  Louis  XII.  over  the  Venetians  (May  14, 
1509) ;  that  of  Marignano,  won  by  Francois  I.  (Septem- 
ber 14,  1515)  ;  that  of  Cesirolles  (April  14,  1544)  ;  the 
raising  of  the  siege  of  Metz  by  Charles  V.  (January  14, 
1553) ;  and  the  victory  of  Ivry  (March  14,  1590).  A 
few  minutes  later,  a  messenger  arrived  with  the  news  of 
the  death  of  Henri  IV.,  assassinated  by  Ravaillac,  that 
afternoon,  in  the  Rue  de  la  Ferronerie. 

Marguerite  appears  to  have  sincerely  mourned  her 
former  consort.  She  was  too  intelligent  not  to  have 
appreciated  his  great  qualities,  and  the  irreparable  loss 
which  France  had  sustained  by  his  death  ;  too  generous- 
hearted  not  to  have  long  since  forgiven  him  his  conjugal 
failings ;  and  indeed,  since  the  divorce,  Henri  seems 
to  have  treated  her  with  unvarying  kindness.  "The 
same  day  [May  22,  1610],"  writes  L'Estoile,  "  Queen 
Marguerite  caused  a  beautiful  service  to  be  sung  at  the 

38. 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

Augustines,  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  the  deceased 
King,  whose  affectionate  wife  she  had  been  for  twenty- 
two  years,  and  who  voluntarily  agreed,  with  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  Pope,  to  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage, 
chiefly  because  the  Lord  had  not  blessed  her  with  happy 
offspring,  which  was  greatly  desired  by  good  Frenchmen." 
Nor  did  she  confine  herself  to  regrets.  She  used 
every  endeavour  to  obtain  a  fair  hearing  for  a  woman 
Comans,  or  d'Escomans,  who  had  formerly  been  in  her 
service,  and  who  came  to  her,  declaring  that  she  had 
proofs  that  Ravaillac  had  been  but  the  instrument  of 
d'Epernon,  Madame  de  Verneuil,  and  other  highly- 
placed  persons.  But  Marie  de'  Medici  declined  to 
credit  the  statements  of  Comans,  who  was  brought  to 
trial  for  slander  and  condemned  to  perpetual  imprison- 
ment as  a  lunatic. 

Marguerite  survived  Henri  IV.  nearly  five  years. 
"  Apart  from  the  folly  of  love,  she  was  very  sensible," 
remarks  Tallemant  des  Reaux ;  and  just  as  she  had 
always  declined  to  take  any  part  in  the  quarrels  between 
the  King's  last  mistresses,  Madame  de  Verneuil  and 
Jacqueline  de  Beuil,  Comtesse  de  Moret,  she  held  aloof 
from  the  acrimonious  disputes  which  marked  the  first 
years  of  the  Regency.  She  remained  on  the  friendliest 
of  terms  with  Marie  de'  Medici  and  the  young  King,  and 
was  a  constant  attendant  at  Court  functions,  where  she 
was  always  treated  with  the  utmost  consideration.  In 
her  hotel  in  the  Faubourg  Saint-Germain,  she  gave  several 
magnificent  fetes,  the  most  important  of  which  was 
the  grand  ball  which  she  gave  on  August  26,  1612,  in 
honour  of  the  Duke  of  Pastrana,  son  of  Ruy  Gomez 
and  of  the  celebrated  Princess  of  Eboli,  when  he  came 

383 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

to  demand  the  hand  of  Elisabeth  de  France    for  the 
future  Philip  IV.  of  Spain. 

The  ball-room  was  encircled  by  steps  "  in  the  form 
of  an  amphitheatre,"  on  which  the  ladies  of  the  Court 
took  their  places  ;  in  the  centre,  under  a  dais  of  cloth- 
of-gold,  sat  the  young  King,  with  the  Queen-Mother 
on  his  right  hand  and  Madame  Elisabeth  on  his  left. 
Close  to  the  little  princess  sat  Marguerite,  a  vision  of 
splendour  which  must  have  dazzled  all  eyes,  her  ample 
person  encased  "  in  a  robe  of  silver  cloth,  with  long  open 
sleeves,  sewn  all  over  with  rose  diamonds,  as  was  also 
the  front  of  her  corsage  "  ;  strings  of  pearls  and  diamonds 
adorned  her  head-dress,  and  a  flashing  riviere  encircled 
her  neck. 

According  to  custom,  the  ball  began  at  half-past  six 
in  the  evening,  when  Louis  XIII.  opened  the  proceed- 
ings by  dancing  a  branle  with  his  eldest  sister.  After 
one  or  two  other  distinguished  couples  had  performed 
solemn  evolutions  before  the  respectful  gaze  of  the 
assembly,  the  Duke  of  Pastrana  approached  the  royal 
dais,  and,  on  bended  knee,  solicited  the  honour  of  tread- 
ing a  measure  with  his  future  Queen.  Rigid  Spanish 
etiquette  forbade  him  to  begin  the  dance,  or  to  take  her 
hand,  so  the  princess  had  to  precede  him,  and  when 
they  approached  one  another,  the  duke  merely  touched 
with  the  tips  of  his  fingers  the  long  hanging-sleeve  of 
the  royal  dancer.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  ball,  Mar- 
guerite entertained  the  distinguished  company  to  a 
collation  "  les  raretes  et  les  sumptuosites  "  of  which  the 
chronicler  describes  in  glowing  terms.1 


1  Le  grand  bal  de  la  Relne  Marguerite  faict  devant  le  <K^oyt  Id  l^tine,  et 
Madame,  le  Dimanche,  26  Aoust,  1612.  A  copy  of  this  very  rare  little 
brochure  is  in  the  possession  of  the  British  Museum. 

384 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

In  these  last  years,  the  old  Queen  became  exceedingly 
devout,  and  ended  by  hearing  three  Masses  every  day, 
one  high  and  two  low  ones.  Nevertheless,  she  continued 
her  flirtations,  and,  in  place  of  Bajaumont,  who  is  believed 
to  have  died  young,  took  into  favour  a  young  singer 
named  Villars,  who,  Tallemant  des  Reaux  tells  us,  was 
surnamed  "  le  Roi  Margot"  "  She  [Marguerite]  brought 
Villars  into  the  garden  of  the  Tuileries,  to  allow  the  Queen 
to  hear  him  sing,"  writes  Malherbe  to  Pereisc,  under  date 
May  14,  i6l4.x 

At  the  end  of  that  same  year,  Marguerite  attended  the 
procession  and  opening  of  the  States-General,  when 
she  contracted  a  severe  chill,  which  she  was  unable  to 
shake  off.  Early  in  March  1615,  she  was  dangerously 
ill,  and  though,  towards  the  end  of  the  month,  she  was 
so  much  better  that  hopes  were  entertained  of  her  ulti- 
mate recovery,  this  improvement  was  quickly  followed  by 
a  relapse,  and,  on  the  26th,  her  Grand  Almoner,  the 
Bishop  of  Grasse,  warned  her  that  her  end  was  at  hand. 
The  following  day,  she  signed  a  codicil  in  favour  of  her 
proteges,  the  Augustines,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  that  night, 
after  having  received  the  last  Sacraments,  "  avec  la  'plus 
edifiante  componction,"  she  died,  being  within  a  few 
weeks  of  completing  her  sixty-second  year. 

"  On  March  27,"  writes  Pontchartrain,  "  there  died 
in  Paris,  Queen  Marguerite,  the  sole  survivor  of  the  race 
of  Valois ;  a  princess  full  of  kindness  and  good  inten- 
tions for  the  welfare  and  repose  of  the  State,  and  who 
was  only  her  own  enemy.  She  was  deeply  regretted."  * 

After  lying  in  state  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Augustines, 

1  Cited  by  La  Ferriere,  Trots  Amoureutes  au  XF1'  siecle :  Margtterite 
de  Valoii. 

z  Memolres  de  Pontchartrain. 

3*5  2B 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

her  body  was  conveyed  to  Saint-Denis  and  interred  in 
the  superb  mausoleum  of  the  Valois,  erected  by  Catherine 
de'  Medici.  The  advocate,  Louis  Servin,  who  had 
successfully  conducted  her  lawsuit  against  the  Comte 
d'Auvergne,  composed  a  lengthy  Latin  epitaph,  which 
was  engraved  by  the  Augustines,  to  whom  she  had 
bequeathed  her  heart. 

Her  superb  hotel  was  sold  on  May  II,  1622,  for  the 
benefit  of  her  creditors,  for,  though  her  charity  was 
boundless,  she  seldom  paid  her  debts,  which  were  reported 
to  exceed  200,000  ecus.  No  trace  of  it  now  remains; 
but  her  house  at  Issy  is  still  standing,  and,  increased 
by  two  wings,  has  become  the  succursale  of  the  Seminary 
of  Saint-Sulpice. 

"  Never,"  says  M.  de  la  Ferriere,  in  his  interesting 
study  of  Marguerite  de  Valois,  "  have  more  contradictory 
judgments  been  passed  on  the  same  woman.  In  the 
camp  of  the  defence,  all  the  great  poets  of  the  Renais- 
sance, from  Ronsard  to  Desportes,  have  chanted  her 
praises ;  Bran  tome  has  extolled  her  to  the  skies ;  the 
three  brothers  d'Urfe  and  Loys  Papon  are  her  passionate 
admirers ;  Hilarion  de  Coste,  that  enthusiastic  pane- 
gyrist of  the  women  of  the  sixteenth  century,  has  made 
of  her  a  victim  and  a  saint ;  Bassompierre  has  energetically 
defended  her  against  Dupleix,  'that  dog  which  bit  the 
hand  that  fed  him.'  In  the  camp  of  the  attack,  d'Aubigne, 
under  the  double  pressure  of  religious  and  political 
passion,  has  dragged  her  in  the  mud  ;*  Dupleix,  an 

i  M.  de  La  Fcrrie're  is  evidently  of  opinion  that  d'Aubigne  is  the 
author  of  the  Divorct  iatyrique,  but  this  is  by  no  means  certain  ;  and, 
though  it  is  included  in  the  (Euvres  completes  of  d'Aubigne,  edited  by 
Reaume  and  de  Cauwade,  in  1877,  the  editors  give  it  under  all  reserve. 

386 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

ingrate  ;  Bayle,  a  cold  sceptic ;  Tallemant  des  Reaux, 
a  recorder  of  licentious  anecdotes ;  Mathieu,  Mezeray, 
grave  historians,  have  judged  her  severely.  What  are 
we  to  conclude  ?  It  is  that  history,  readily  indulgent 
towards  women  who  have  loyally  and  sincerely  loved, 
is  but  little  so  for  those  whose  lives  have  been  mainly 
occupied  with  gallantry." 

But  was  Marguerite  really  so  "  gallant "  as  her  de- 
tractors assert,  and  as  M.  de  la  Ferriere  seems  to  imagine  ? 
We  are  inclined  to  think,  with  her  two  most  recent 
biographers,  M.  de  Saint-Poncy  and  M,  Merki,  that  her 
failings  in  this  respect  have  been  greatly  exaggerated  ; 
and  certainly  the  more  discreditable  of  the  intrigues  laid 
to  her  charge  rest  on  very  unsatisfactory  evidence ; 
some  passages  from  L'Estoile,  a  worthy  man,  but  one  of 
the  most  credulous  of  chroniclers,  two  or  three  anecdotes 
of  Du  Vair,  Dupleix's  Histoire  de  France,  and  the  scurri- 
lous Divorce  satyrique. 

Still,  after  allowance  is  made  for  all  possible  exag- 
geration, there  can  be  little  doubt  that  Marguerite  is 
only  too  well  entitled  to  be  described  as  an  "  amoureuse  "> 
but,  at  the  same  time, in  justice  to  her,  it  should  be  borne 
in  mind  that  never  had  woman  better  excuse  for  her 
irregularities.  Brought  up  in  one  of  the  most  licentious 
Courts  the  world  has  ever  seen,  married  for  "  reasons 
of  State  "  to  a  husband  to  whom  she  was  not  only  in- 
different, but  who  was  utterly  indifferent  to  her,  who 
made  not  the  slightest  attempt  to  win  her  affection,  but 
flaunted  his  innumerable  gallantries  before  her  eyes,  and 
showed  a  cynical  indelicacy  in  the  demands  that  he  made 
on  her  complacence,  she  would  have  been  something 
more  than  human  had  she  not  yielded  to  the  temptations 
which  beset  her,  and,  following  the  example  of  all  the 

387 


QUEEN   MARGOT 

other  neglected  wives  she  saw  around  her,  sought  com- 
panionship and  affection  elsewhere.  To  judge  her  by 
ordinary  standards  of  morality  would  be  not  only  unjust, 
but  absurd. 

But,  apart  from  the  irregularities  of  her  life,  the  last 
of  the  Valois  has  many  claims  to  our  admiration  and 
respect.  She  showed  a  most  praiseworthy  loyalty  to 
her  husband's  interests  under  very  difficult  circumstances, 
and  continued  to  do  so,  until  the  persecution  to  which 
she  was  subjected  by  her  malevolent  brother,  and  the 
scandals  which  followed,  had  changed  his  indifference 
and  neglect  into  dislike  and  contempt.  She  was  un- 
selfishly devoted  to  her  younger  brother,  Anjou,  for 
whose  sake,  as  we  have  seen,  she  readily  braved  persecu- 
tion and  disgrace  at  the  Court  and  the  risk  of  capture 
and  imprisonment  by  the  Spaniards  in  Flanders.  She  ex- 
hibited real  magnanimity  on  her  return  to  Paris  in  1605, 
when,  instead  of  seeking  to  embarrass  the  woman  who  had 
usurped  the  place  which  was  rightfully  hers  and  the 
husband  who  had  discarded  her,  she  lived  on  the  friend- 
liest terms  with  them,  and  used  all  her  influence  to  recon- 
cile the  old  nobility  to  the  new  dynasty.  One  of  the 
most  charming  writers  of  her  time,  as  her  Memoires 
and  correspondence  show,  she  was  "  the  refuge  of  men- 
of-letters,  and  loved  to  hear  them  talk,"  and  did  all 
in  her  power  to  exalt  their  calling.  But  perhaps  her  best 
claim  to  our  regard  is  her  abounding  charity.  "  True 
heiress  of  the  House  of  Valois,"  says  Richelieu,  to  whose 
calm  and  dispassionate  judgment  it  is  pleasant  to  turn 
after  the  almost  hysterical  panegyrics  of  Brantome 
and  Hilarion  de  Coste  and  the  shameful  calumnies  of 
the  Divorce  satyrique,  "  she  never  made  a  gift  to  any 
one  without  excusing  herself  for  giving  so  little,  and  the 

388 


QUEEN  MARGOT 

present  was  never  so  large  that  there  did  not  always 
remain  to  her  a  desire  to  give  more. ...  In  short,  as  charity 
is  the  queen  of  virtues,  this  great  queen  crowned  hers 
by  that  of  her  alms,  which  she  dispensed  so  abundantly 
that  there  was  not  a  religious  house  in  Paris  which  did 
not  experience  it,  nor  a  poor  person  who  had  recourse 
to  her  without  obtaining  assistance.  Moreover,  God 
recompensed  with  usury  that  which  she  exercised 
towards  His  people,  giving  her  the  grace  to  make  so 
Christian  an  end,  that  if  she  had  been  a  subject  to  pro- 
voke envy  among  others  during  her  life,  one  had  the  more 
cause  to  envy  her  at  her  death."  * 

Marguerite  de  Valois's  brothers   called   her   Margot, 
and  by  that  name  she  is  best  known  to  history. 

i  Memoir ei  du.  Cardinal  de  Richelieu, 


389 


INDEX 


AERSCHOT,  Due  d',  208,  209 
Aldgre,  Yves  (Governor  of  Issoire), 

3Si 

Alen9on,  Francois  de  Valois,  Due 
de.  See  Anjou 

Alessandrini, Cardinal,  59  and  note,6i 

AllSgre,  Antoine  (favourite  of  Henri 
III.).  178 

Alva,  Duke  of,  14,  16 

Amville,  Due  d',  50  and  note,  81, 
89  and  note,  126,  151  and  note 

Amyot,  Jacques  (Bishop  of  Aux- 
erre),  u 

Andelot,  19 

Ange,  Friar  (reputed  son  of  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois  and  Harlay  de 
Chanvallon),  295  note 

Angouleme,  Henri  d'  (Grand  Prior 
of  France),  41,  104,  116 

Angoule'me,  Marguerite  d'.  See 
Marguerite  d' Angouleme,  Queen 
of  Navarre,  3 

Anjpu,  Fran9ois  de  Valois,  Due  d' 
his  warm  affection  for  his  sister, 
Marguerite,  in  their  childhood,  3  ; 
sent  to  the  Chateau  of  Amboise 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Wars  of 
Religion,  10  ;  fascinated  by  Co- 
ligny,  62  ;  his  costume  at  the 
marriage  of  his  sister  and  Henri 
of  Navarre,  86  ;  takes  part  in  an 
allegorical  entertainment  at  the 
Hotel  du  Petit-Bourbon,  90-92  ; 
his  character,  115;  the  secret 
head  of  the  "  Politiques,"  119  ;  a 
suitor  for  the  hand  of  Elizabeth 
of  England,  119;  quarrels  vio- 
lently with  his  brother,  Henri, 
1 20  ;  attempts  to  escape  from 
Court,  124,  125  ;  his  pusillani- 
mous conduct  on  the  discovery 
of  Guitry's  scheme  for  the  libera- 
tion of  himself  and  the  King  of 
Navarre,  127  ;  imprisoned  in  the 


Anjou,  Francois  de  Valois,  Due  d' — 

continued 

keep  of  Vincennes,  128,  129 ; 
Marguerite's  offers  to  enable  him 
to  escape,  132,  133  ;  entreats 
Charles  IX.  to  spare  the  lives  of 
La  M61e  and  Coconnas,  1 34 ; 
present  during  the  last  hours  of 
Charles  IX.,  141  ;  his  reception 
by  Henri  III.-  on  the  lattet'a 
return  from  Poland,  145,  146 ; 
takes  a  solemn  oath  of  fidelity  to 
the  new  King,  150,  151  ;  joins 
the  processions  of  the  Flagellants, 
152  ;  rivalry  between  him  and 
Henri  of  Navarre  over  Madame 
de  Sauve,  162.  163  ;  his  affection 
for  Bussy  d' Amboise,  164,  165  ; 
wishes  to  hasten  to  his  assistance 
when  attacked  by  Du  Guast's 
followers,  169  ;  advises  Bussy 
to  retire  to  Anjou,  170;  his  irk- 
some position  at  Court,  172,  173  5 
makes  his  escape  and  places  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  rebels,  173 
and  note,  174  ;  issues  a  procla- 
mation, 174  ;  refuses  to  negotiate 
until  the  Marechaux  de  Mont- 
morency  and  Cosse  are  set  at 
liberty,  175  ;  concludes  the  truce 
of  Champigny,  175  ;  his  respon- 
sibility for  the  assassination  of 
Du  Guast  considered,  182,  183  ; 
protests  against  the  King's  treat- 
ment of  Marguerite,  183  ;  meets 
the  Queen-mother  and  Mar- 
guerite at  the  Chateau  of  Chas- 
tenay,  187  ;  secures  great  ad- 
vantagesfor  himself  by  the  Treaty 
of  Beaulieu,  188  ;  advises  his 
sister  to  allow  herself  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  treaty,  188  ;  deserts 
his  Protestant  allies,  194  ;  deter- 
mines to  wrest  Flanders  from 


391 


INDEX 


Anjou,  Francois  de  Valois,  Due  d'— 

continued 

Spain,  198  ;  persuades  Mar- 
guerite to  go  to  Flanders  to  fur- 
ther his  interests,  198,  199  ;  his 
repulsive  appearance,  199  note  ; 
"in  worse  odour  at  Court  than 
ever,"  213;  warns  Marguerite  of 
the  dangers  awaiting  her,  214  ; 
visits  her  at  La  Fdre,  226,  227  ; 
confers  with  the  Flemish  dele- 
gates, 227  ;  returns  to  Paris,  227  ; 
Henri  III.  opposed  to  his  Flemish 
enterprise,  230,  231  ;  "  subjected 
to  a  thousand  insults,"  231  ; 
grossly  insulted  by  the  King's 
mignons,  234  ;  requests  per- 
mission to  leave  the  Court  for  a 
while,  234.  235  ;  extraordinary 
scene  between  him  and  Henri  III. 
235-237  ;  formally  reconciled  to 
his  brother,  237,  238 ;  under 
close  surveillance,  238  ;  effects 
his  escape  from  Paris,  238,  243  ; 
writes  to  the  King,  244 ;  in- 
directly responsible  for  the  assas- 
sination of  Bussy,  263  note  ;  uses 
his  influence  to  put  an  end  to 
the  "  Lovers'  War,"  268  ;  visits 
Gascony,  268  ;  rivalry  between 
him  and  the  King  of  Navarre 
over  Fosseuse,  269,  270  ;  returns 
to  Paris,  271  ;  total  failure  of  his 
Flemish  enterprise,  288,  289  ; 
dismisses  Chanvallon  from  his 
service,  290 ;  visited  by  his 
mother,  291  ;  slowly  dying  of 
consumption,  303  ;  his  death,  306 

Antoine  de  Bourbon,  King  of  Na- 
varre (father  of  Henri  IV.),  2,  64 

Arnalt,  Jean  d'  (cited),  337 

Atri,  Mile,  d',  201  and  note,  248,250 

Aubiac,  d' 

placed  in  command  of  one  of  the 
companies  of  men-at-arms  orga- 
nised by  Marguerite  de  Valois  at 
Agen,  316  ;  enjoys  her  friendship 
and  confidence,  if  not  her  love, 
327,  328  and  note  ;  quarrels  with 
Lignerac  at  the  Chlteau  of  Carlat, 

329  ;    accompanies  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  to  tne  Chlteau  of  Ibois, 

330  ;  arrested  by  the  Marquis  de 
Canillao,   330 ;    Henri  III.  gives 
orders  for  him  to  be  put  to  death, 
331-  332  '•  hanged  at  Aigueperce, 
332  ;   stanzas  composed  by  Mar- 
guerite,   "  to      consecrate      and 
avenge  his  memory,"  332  note 


Aubigne,  Agrippa  d',  131,  184,  271, 

300,  301,  386  and  note 

(cited),  136,  254,  260,  294,  313 
Auger  de    Mauleon  (first  editor  of 

Marguerite  de  Valois's  Memoires), 

340.  341 
Augustmes,     the,     Marguerite     de 

Valois's  benefactions  to,  280,  381, 

385.  386 
Aumlle,  Claude  de  Lorraine,  Due 

d',  25  and  note,  34,  92,  104,  119 
Auvergne,  Charles  de  Valois,  Comte 

d'  (son  of  Charles  IX.  and  Marie 

Touchet),  141,  336,  362,  365,  366, 

367-  385 

Auvergne,  Dauphin  of,  86,  133,  247 
Avantigny     (Chamberlain    to     the 

Due  d' Anjou),  178 

BAJAUMONT     (favourite     of     Mar- 
guerite) 

succeeds  Saint-Julien  in  her  affec- 
tions, 378;  murderous  attack  upon 
him  in  the  Church  of  the  Augus- 
tines,  278  ;  falls  dangerously  ill, 
378;  chastised  by  Marguerite, 
379;  believed  to  have  died  youngt 

385 

Balancon,  Baron  de,  208 

Balzac  d'Entragues,  Charles  de 
("  le  bel  d'Entragues  "),  147 

Balzac  d'Entragues,  Fran£ois  de 
(father  of  Henriette  d'Entragues), 
362,  365,  366 

Balzac  d'Entragues  Henriette  de. 
See  Verneuil,  Marquise  de  , 

Bar,  Due  de,  355 

Barbe  (waiting-woman  to  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois),  293 

Barlemont,  Louis  de  (Bishop  of 
Cambrai),  202-205,  2O7 

Barlemont,  Comte  de,  attempts  to 
capture  the  Queen  of  Navarre  at 
Dinant,  221-223 

Baschet,  Armand  (cited),  84 

Bassompierre  (cited),  147,  386 

Bayle  (cited),  340,  387 

Beaufort    Gabrielle  d'Estrees, 

Duchesse  de 

becomes  the  mistress  of  Henri  IV. 
351  ;  married  to  the  Seigneur  de 
Liancourt,  351  ;  bears  the  King 
a  son,  352  ;  obtains  the  dissolu- 
tion of  her  marriage,  352  ;  created 
Marquise  de  Monceaux  and 
Duchesse  de  Beaufort,  352  ;  her 
other  children,  352  ;  Henri's 
letters  to  her,  352  ;  her  appear- 
ance and  character,  352,  353  ; 


392 


INDEX 


Beaufort,  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  Duch- 

es«e  de — continued 
the  King  resolves  to  marry  her, 
353'  354  :  her  relations  with  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois,  354  and  note  ; 
her  elevation  dreaded  by  the 
Pope,  355  ;  her  illness  and  death, 

356,  357 

Beaulieu,  Peace  of,  187-189,  230 
Beaupreau,  Marquis  de,  26  note 
Bellegarde,  Due  de,  351,  352,  363 
Bellievre.  See  Pomponne  de  Belli- 

evre 
B6me  (one  of  the  assassins  of  Co- 

ligny),  95,  96 

Bergerac,  Peace  of,  226,  249 
Berthier  (syndic  of  the  clergy),  358 
Bethune,  Madame  de,  293,  294,  295, 

296,  297,  318 
Beza,  8 
Bide  (a  gentleman  towards  whom 

Marguerite  de  Valois  is  charged 

with  "  a  dangerous  form  of  bene- 
volence "),  147.  See  also  Balzac 

d'Entragues,  Charles  de 
Birague  (Chancellor),  67,  95,   100, 

128,  141, 283 

Birague,  Charles  de,  302,  305 
Biron,  Armand  de  Gontaut,  Mare- 

chal  de,  49  note,  54,  58,  69,  266, 

267,  268,  367  note 
Biron,  Charles  de  Gontaut,  Mare- 

chal  de,  1 29  note,  365  and  note.367 
Boleyn,  Anne,  Queen  of  England, 

8  note 
Bouillon,  Henri  de  la  Tour  d'Au- 

vergne,    Due   de,    249,    259   and 

note,  260,  262,  263,  270  note,  367 

(cited),  199 
Bourbon,  Cardinal  de,  71,  74,79,81, 

85,  88  andnote,  128  ,141,  247,  310 
Brantome,  142,  167,  247,  282  note, 

339.  340,  34L  386,  388 

(cited),  i,  28,  29,  30,  31,  33,  65- 
67,  106  note,  121,  160  note, 
161,  164,  168,  181,  208,  2ii, 

333,  334 

Busbecq,  Austrian  Ambassador  at 
French  Court  (cited),  293,  313 

Bussy  d'Amboise,  Robert  de  Cler- 

mont,  Sieur  de 

immortalised  by  Dumas  pere, 
164  ;  his  character,  164  and  note  ; 
leaves  Henri  III.'s  service  for 
that  of  Monsieur,  165  ;  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois  charged  by  Du 
Guast  and  Henri  III.  with  carry- 
ing on  a  liaison  with  him,  165, 
1 66  ;  question  .of  his  relations 


Bussy  d'Amboise,  Robert  de  Cler- 

mont,  Sieur  de — continued 
with  the  princess  considered,  167' 
1 68  ;  escapes  unhurt  from  an 
ambush  laid  for  him  by  Du  Guast, 
1 68,  169  ;  compelled  to  retire 
from  Court,  169  ;  ravages  Anjou 
and  Maine,  213  note  ;  in  disgrace 
at  Court,  213,  214;  his  quarrels 
with  Henri  III.'s  mignons,  231- 
233  ;  again  compelled  to  quit  the 
Court,  233  ;  returns  and  is 
arrested,  238  ;  ordered  to  be 
reconciled  to  Qu61us,  238  ;  assists 
Monsieur  to  escape  from  Paris, 
242  ;  assassinated,  263  and  note 

CABOCHE,  M.,  his  edition  of  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois's  Memoires,  341 

Cahors,  storming  of 

Caillard  (surgeon),  77,  78 

Cange  (valet-de-chambre  to  Due 
d' Anjou),  236,  241,  242 

Canillac,  Marquis  de 

arrests  Marguerite  de  Valois  'at 
the  Chateau  of  Ibois,  330  ;  Henri 
III.'s  instructions  to  him  con- 
cerning her,  331,  332  ;  conducts 
her  to  the  Chateau  of  Usson,  332  ; 
succumbs  to  her  charms,  333  and 
note  ;  goes  over  to  the  League, 
334,  335  ;  surrenders  Usson  to 
Marguerite,  335  ;  donation  made 
by  her  in  his  favour,  335,  336  ; 
killed  at  the  siege  of  Saint-Ouen, 
336 

Carlos,  Don  (son  of  Philip  II.  of 
Spain),  14,  16  and  note 

Castelan  (physician),  36  and  note 

Castelnau,  18,  54 

Catherine  de  Bourbon,  Duchess  de 
Bar  (sister  of  Henri  IV.),  58,  60 
note,  193,  355 

Catherine    de'    Medici,    Queen    of 

France 

assumes  the  Regency,  4  ;  her 
character,  4,  5  ;  her  policy,  6,  7  ; 
attends  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy, 
7  ;  reproves  Anjou  for  his  Hu- 
guenot tendencies,  10  ;  sends  her 
younger  children  to  the  Chateau 
of  Amboise,  10,  n  ;  sets  out  on 
the  "grand  voyage,"  12,  13; 
confers  with  Alva  at  Bayonne, 
14  ;  gives  a  magnificent  fete  on 
the  Isle  of  Aiguemeau  in  the 
Adour,  14-16 ;  remonstrates 
with  Jeanne  d'Albret  in  regard 
to  the  treatment  of  her  Catholic 


393 


INDEX 


Catherine    de'    Medici.    Queen    of 

France — continued 
subjects,  17  ;  regarded  with  awe 
by  Marguerite  de  Valois,  22  ; 
admits  her  to  her  confidence,  22, 
23  ;  but  withdraws  it  on  learning 
of  her  intimacy  with  the  Due  de 
Guise,  25  ;  begs  Marguerite  "  to 
array  herself  most  sumptuously," 
in  order  to  please  the  ladies  of 
Cognac,  30  ;  indignant  with  the 
Cardinal  de  Lorraine  for  en- 
couraging his  nephew's  preten- 
sions to  Marguerite's  hand,  41  ; 
orders  her  daughter  to  break  off 
all  intercourse  with  the  duke,  41  ; 
resolves  to  marry  her  to  Henri  of 
Navarre,  50  ;  her  political  aims 
at  this  period  considered,  51-54  ; 
meets  Jeanne  d'Albret  at  Tours, 
59  ;  confers  with  her  in  regard  to 
the  marriage  articles,  60,  61  ; 
treats  her  "  A  la  fourcke,"  62  ; 
anxious  to  draw  Henri  of  Na- 
varre to  Blois,  64,  65  ;  promises 
Marguerite  a  dower  of  200,000 
livres,  7 1  ;  insists  on  the  marriage 
taking  place  in  Paris,  72  ;  sus- 
pected of  having  caused  Jeanne 
d'Albret  to  be  poisoned,  77  ; 
alarmed  at  the  increasing  in- 
fluence of  Coligny  over  Charles 
IX.,  140,  141  ;  has  recourse  to 
fraud  in  regard  to  the  papal  dis- 
pensation for  Marguerite's  mar- 
riage, 85  ;  writes  to  Gregory  XIII. 
to  excuse  her  action,  85  ;  deter- 
mines on  the  assassination  of 
Coligny,  94-96 ;  fearful  of  her 
guilt  being  brought  home  to  her, 
98-100  ;  plans  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  100 ;  argu- 
ments by  which  she  succeeds  in 
obtaining  the  King's  consent, 
100-103  I  gives  orders  for  the 
bell  of  Saint-Germain-rAuxerrois 
to  give  the  signal  for  the  mas- 
sacre, 104 ;  suggests  to  Mar- 
guerite the  dissolution  of  her 
marriage,  no;  her  habits,  104 
and  note  ;  adopts  a  pacific  policy 
towards  the  Huguenots,  120  ; 
entertainment  given  by  her  to 
the  Polish  envoys,  121  ;  her 
adieu  to  her  son,  Henri,  on  his 
departure  for  Poland,  122  ;  re- 
ceives information  from  Mar- 
guerite concerning  the  projected 
escape  of  Alen9on  and  Henri  of 


Catherine    de'    Medici,    Queen     of 

France — continued 
Navarre,  124,  125  ;  acts  with 
promptitude  and  decision  on 
learning  of  Guitry's  intended 
coup-de-mnin  at  Saint-Germain, 
127,  128  ;  believes  in  the  efficacy 
of  sorcery,  129  and  note  ;  takes 
energetic  measures  to  crush  the 
conspiracy  of  the  "  Politiques," 
133  ;  refuses  to  allow  Charles  IX. 
to  pardon  La  M61e,  1 34  ;  gives 
secret  instructions  for  the  execu- 
tion of  La  M61e  and  Coconnas  to 
be  hurried  on,  135  ;  present 
during  Charles  IX.'s  last  hours, 
140,  141  ;  her  letter  to  the  King 
of  Poland,  143  ;  measures  taken 
by  her  to  secure  his  succession 
to  the  throne  of  France,  144  ; 
causes  Montgommery  to  be  exe- 
cuted, 144  ;  meets  Henri  III.  at 
Bourgoin,  145,  146  ;  believes,  or 
affects  to  believe,  the  King's 
charge  of  misconduct  against 
Marguerite  at  Lyons,  148-153  ; 
admits  that  she  has  been  misin- 
formed, 1 50  ;  favours  the  mar- 
riage'of  Henri  III.  and  Louise  de 
Vaudemont,  1 54  ;  ill-fate  which 
pursues  her  children,  155,  156; 
declines  to  interfere  in  Mar- 
guerite's liaison  with  Bussy  d' Am- 
boise,  165-167  ;  goes  to  negotiate 
with  Monsieur  after  his  flight 
from  Paris  in  1575,  174,  175  ; 
intervenes  to  protect  Marguerite 
from  the  wrath  of  Henri  III.,  176; 
effects  a  reconciliation  between 
them,  1 86  ;  goes  with  Marguerite 
to  arrange  terms  of  peace  with 
Alenfon,  137  ;  prevails  upon  her 
to  return  to  Paris,  189;  raises 
no  obstacle  to  Marguerite's  jour- 
ney to  Flanders,  200  ;  promises 
to  accompany  her  daughter  to 
Gascony,  229  ;  seeks  Henri  III.'s 
permission  for  Monsieur  to  leave 
the  Court  for  a  while,  234,  235  ; 
present  at  an  extraordinary  scene 
between  her  sons,  235,  236 ; 
reconciles  them,  237,  238  ;  warned 
by  Matignon  of  Anjou's  intention 
to  escape  from  Court,  239,  240  ; 
her  conversation  with  Marguerite 
in  regard  to  this  matter,  240,  241  ; 
goes  to  Angers  to  endeavour  to 
persuade  Monsieur  to  return  to 
Court,  844  ;  sets  out  with  Mar- 


394 


INDEX 


Catherine    de     Medici,    Queen     of 

France — continued 
guerite  for  Gascony,  246-248  ; 
her  meeting  with  Henri  of  Na- 
varre at  Casteras,  249  ;  makes  a 
State  entry  into  Toulouse,  250  ; 
indignant  at  the  King  of  Na- 
varre's refusal  to  accede  to  her 
wishes,  250,  251  ;  visits  Auch, 
251  ;  her  part  in  the  affair  of 
La  Reole  and  Fleurance,  252, 
253  ;  visits  Nerac,  253  ;  disap- 
pointed at  the  results  of  the 
Treaty  of  Nerac,  255  and  note  ; 
returns  to  Paris,  255  ;  invites 
Marguerite  to  visit  the  French 
Court,  278  ;  meets  the  King  and 
Queen  of  Navarre  at  La  Mothe 
Sainte-Heraye,  282  ;  makes  over 
to  the  latter  her  duchy  of  Valois, 
283  ;  reprimands  Henri  of  Na- 
varre for  his  conduct  towards  his 
wife,  286,  287  ;  indignant  at  "  la 
folie  d'Anvers,"  289 ;  goes  to 
Picardy  to  visit  Anjou,  291  ; 
"  beside  herself  with  affliction  " 
on  learning  of  Marguerite's  arrest 
near  Palaiseau,  295  ;  sends  the 
Bishop  of  Langres  to  expostulate 
with  Henri  III.,  295  ;  Mar- 
guerite's pathetic  letter  to  her 
from  Venddme,  299,  300  ;  sends 
her  daughter  200,000  livres,  300  ; 
present  at  the  interview  between 
Henri  III.  and  d'Aubigne  at 
Saint-Germain,  301  ;  urges  Mar- 
guerite to  receive  the  Due  d'Eper- 
non  on  his  visit  to  Nerac,  307, 
308  ;  counsels  Henri  III.  to  give 
his  countenance  and  support  to 
the  League,  311  and  note  ;  letters 
of  Bellidvre  to  her,  315,  316  ; 
declares  that  Marguerite  is  "  her 
scourge  in  this  world,"  318  ;  offers 
her  an  asylum  at  the  Chateau  of 
Ibois,  329  ;  urges  Henri  III.  to 
cause  d'Aubiac  to  be  hanged  in 
Marguerite's  presence,  331  ;  sinis- 
ter designs  attributed  to  her  in 
regard  to  her  daughter,  334,  335 
and  note  ;  her  death,  336  ; 
disinherits  Marguerite  in  favour 
of  Charles  de  Valois,  336  ;  her 
bequest  contested  by  the  Queen 
of  Navarre,  366  ;  and  set  aside, 

375 

Cavalli,  Venetian  Ambassador  at 
the  French  Court  (cited),  101, 
138 


Cavriana,  Tuscan    Ambassador    at 
the    French     Court  (cited),   328, 
333.  335  note 
Chanvallon,    Jacques    de    Harlay, 

Seigneur  de 

accompanies  Anjou  to  Gascony, 
270  ;  his  liaison  with  Marguerite 
de  Valois,  270  and  note,  27 1  ;  her 
passionate  letters  to  him,  271  ; 
marries  without  consulting  her, 
287,  288  ;  dismissed  by  Monsieur 
from  his  service,  290  ;  returns  to 
Paris  and  resumes  his  intimacy 
with  Marguerite,  290,  291  ;  his 
relations  with  her  revealed  to 
Henri  III.,  291  ;  orders  issued 
for  his  arrest,  293  ;  escapes  to 
Beaumont,  293  ;  scandalous  re- 
ports concerning  him  and  the 
Queen  of  Navarre,  295  and  note  ; 
welcomes  Marguerite  on  her 
return  to  Paris  in  1605 
Charles  II.,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  13, 

40,  41,  43,  311  note 
Charles  V.,  Emperor,  208,  382 
Charles  VI.,  King  of  France,  333 
Charles  VIII.,  King  of  France,  83 
Charles  IX.,  King  of  France 

critical  condition  of  France  at 
his  accession,  4 ;  attends  the 
Colloquy  of  Poissy,  7  ;  sets  out 
on  the  "grand  voyage,"  13; 
confers  with  Alva  at  Bayonne, 
14  ;  gives  a  magnificent  f6te  on 
the  Isle  of  Aiguemeau  in  the 
Adour,  14-16  ;  believes  his  sister 
filisabeth,  Queen  of  Spain,  to 
have  been  poisoned  by  Philip  II., 
1 6  note  ;  remonstrates  with 
Jeanne  d'Albret  in  regard  to  her 
treatment  of  her  Catholic  sub- 
jects, 17  ;  attempt  of  the  Hugue- 
nots to  seize  him  at  Monceaux, 
1 8  ;  his  flight  to  Paris,  18,  19; 
orders  Henri  d'AngoulSme  to 
assassinate  the  Due  de  Guise,  41, 
42  ;  angry  scene  between  him 
and  the  duke  at  the  Louvre,  43- 
44  ;  his  wrath  appeased  by 
Guise's  marriage  with  the  Prin- 
cesse  de  Porcien,  44  ;  his  des- 
patch to  Fourquevaux  in  regard 
to  the  projected  marriage  between 
Marguerite  de  Valois  and  Dona 
Sebastian  of  Portugal,  49  j  deter- 
mines to  marry  Marguerite  to 
Henri  of  Navarre,  50,  51  ;  his 
political  aims  at  this  period  con- 
sidered, 51-54  ;  invites  Jeanne 


395 


INDEX 


Charles  IX.,  King   of  France— con- 
tinued 

d'Albret  to  Blois  to  settle  the 
preliminaries  of  the  marriage,  55  ; 
refuses  Don  Sebastian's  demand 
for  his  sister's  hand,  59  and  note  ; 
his  cordial  reception  of  Jeanne 
d'Albret  on  her  arrival  at  Court, 
6 1  ;  falling  under  the  influence  of 
Coligny,  62  ;  "  emancipates  him- 
self," 63  ;  invites  Henri  of  Na- 
varre to  Blois,  65  ;  places  the 
marriage  negotiations  in  the 
hands  of  a  commission,  69,  70  ; 
declares  it  to  be  his  pleasure  to 
discard  all  conditions,  70  ;  pro- 
mises his  sister  a  dowry  of  300,000 
ecus,  71  ;  flies  into  a  passion  at 
the  attitude  of  Gregory  XIII. 
towards  the  marriage,  73  ;  con- 
sents to  the  demands  of  the 
Huguenot  divines,  74,  75  ;  orders 
an  autopsy  to  be  held  on  the 
body  of  Jeanne  d'Albret,  77  ; 
dominated  by  Coligny,  82-84  ; 
has  recourse  to  fraud  in  regard 
to  the  papal  dispensation  for  the 
marriage,  85  ;  his  magnificent 
appearance  on  the  day  of  the 
marriage,  87  ;  represents  Nep- 
tune in  a  ballet  at  the  Louvre,  90  ; 
takes  part  in  an  allegorical  enter- 
tainment at  the  H&tel  du  Petit- 
Bourbon,  90-92  ;  and  in  a  tour- 
nament, 92  ;  his  conduct  on 
learning  of  the  attempted  assas- 
sination of  Coligny,  97,  98  ; 
threatened  by  the  Huguenots, 
98,  99  ;  induced  to  give  his  con- 
sent to  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, 100-104  I  gives  orders 
for  the  followers  of  the  King  of 
Navarre  at  the  Louvre  to  be  put 
to  death,  108  ;  threatens  Na- 
varre and  Conde  with  death,  if 
they  refuse  to  abjure  their  reli- 
gion, 1 08,  109  ;  exasperated  by 
Conde's  obstinacy,  in,  112  ; 
beginning  to  treat  his  brother-in- 
law  with  kindness,  113;  character 
of  his  Court,  113-116;  receives 
the  Polish  envoys,  121 ;  compels 
his  brother,  Henri,  to  hasten  his 
departure  for  Poland,  122  ;  at- 
tacked by  fever,  122  ;  his  flight 
from  Saint-Germain  to  Paris, 
127,  128  ;  shuts  himself  up  at 
Vincennes,  128  ;  invests  his 
mother  with  full  powers,  133  ; 


396 


Charles  IX.,   King   of   France— con- 
tinued 

prevented  by  her  from  sparing  the 
lives  of  La  Mole  and  Coconnas, 
134,  135  ;  his  remorse  for  the 
St.  Bartholomew,  137-139;  his 
illness  and  death,  139-141  ;  his 
funeral,  142 

Charron  (Provost  of  the  Merchants), 
104 

Chartres,  Vidame  de,  81,  99 

Chastelas,  Sieur  de,  177 

Chateaubriand  (cited),  6 

Chateauneuf,  Seigneur  de,  349,  350 

Chateauneuf,  Renee  de  (mistress  of 
Henri  III.),  154,  155  and  note, 
178 

Chateigneraie,  Charles  de  Vivonne, 
Baron  de,  340,  341 

Chatre,  Marquis  de  la,  234 

Claude  de  Valois,  Duchess  of 
Lorraine,  3,  43,  44,  86,  105,  107, 

r$5 

Choisnin  (secretary  to  the  Queen  of 

Navarre),  316,  326 
Clement  VIII.,  Pope,  350,  353,  355, 

356,  358 

Clement,  Jacques  (assassin  of  Henri 
HI.),  336 

Clermont,  Antoine  de,  murdered  by 
Bussy  d'Amboise,  364  note 

Coconnas,  Comte  de,  128,  130,  134 
and  note,  136,  137,  188  note 

Coligny,    Gaspard   de,    Admiral   of 

France 

declared  guiltless  of  all  complicity 
in  the  assassination  of  Fra^ois 
de  Lorraine,  Due  de  Guise,  17  ; 
pleads  eloquently  for  peace,  but 
is  over-ruled  by  the  other  Hu- 
guenot leaders,  17  ;  threatens 
Charles  IX.  on  his  flight  from 
Meaux  to  Paris,  18,  19 ;  his 
courage  and  skill  during  the  third 
civil  war,  51  ;  divines  the  grow- 
ing greatness  of  Henri  of  Navarre, 
55  ;  strongly  urges  his  marriage 
with  Marguerite  de  Valois,  55  ; 
his  growing  influence  over  Charles 
IX.,  61,  62  ;  present  during 
Jeanne  d'Albret's  last  illness,  79  ; 
presses  the  King  of  Navarre  to 
come  to  Paris,  80 ;  dominates 
Charles  IX.,  82,  83  ;  urges  him 
to  assist  the  revolted  Nether- 
lands against  Spain,  83  ;  Cathe- 
rine de'  Medici's  jealousy  of  him, 
83  ;  his  remark  on  perceiving 
the  captured  Huguenot  stan- 


INDEX 


Coligny,    Gaspard    de,  Admiral   of 

France— contin  tied 
dards  at  Notre-Dame,  89  note  ; 
receives  repeated  warnings  to 
leave  Paris,  but  is  deaf  to  all 
appeals,  94  ;  his  removal  deter- 
mined on  by  Catherine,  94-96  ; 
his  attempted  assassination,  96- 
97  ;  visited  by  Charles  IX.  and 
the  Queen-mother,  97,  98  ;  mea- 
sures taken  for  his  security,  98  ; 
Charles  IX.  inflamed  against  him 
by  Catherine,  101,  102  and  note  ; 
his  assassination  entrusted  to  the 
Due  de  Guise,  104  ;  his  property 
restored  to  his  heirs  by  the  Treaty 
of  Beaulieu,  188 

Coligny,  Louise  de.  See  Louise, 
Princess  of  Orange 

Comines  (favourite  of  Marguerite 
de  Valois),  337  note 

Conde,  Louis,  Prince  de,  18,  20  and 
note 

Comans,  or  Escomans,  her  evidence 
in  regard  to  the  assassination  of 
Henri  IV.,  383 

Conde,  Henri  I.,  Prince  de,  80,  84, 
108,  109,  in,  112,  144,  146,  305 

Cond6,  Henri  II.,  Prince  de,  345 

Conde,  Marie  de  Cleves,  Princesse 
de.  59.  79.  84,  112,  122,  151  and 
note,  152,  154 

Conde,  Catherine  Charlotte  de  la 
Tremouille,  Princesse  de,  345 

Cosse,  Marechal  de,  54,  81,  133,  144, 
232,  233 

Cosse-Brissac,  Jeanne  de,  232 

Coste,  Pere  Hilarion  de,  387,  388 
(cited),  333,  337,  341 

Coutras,  Battle  of,  336 

Crillon,  177  and  note 

Cursun,  Comte  de,  38 

Curton.Baronne  de  (gouvernanteand, 
later,  dame  d'honncur,  to  Marguerite 
de  Valois),  and  note,  9, 6 1 , 3 3Onote 

DALE,  Valentine  (English  Ambas- 
sador at  the  French  Court),  134 

Dame  de  Montsoreau,  Dumas  p&re's 

Dampierre,  Madame  de',  167 

Dampmartin,  341 
(cited),  167 

Daniel,  Pere,  52 

Daurat,  Jean,  12  i 

Davila  (cited),  27,  38  note,  52,  59, 
60 

Dayelle,  Mile,  (maid-of-honour  to 
Catherine  de'  Medici),  248,  249, 
255,  256,  264 


Desnoeuds  (surgeon),  77,  78 

Desportes  (poet),  386 

Divorce  satyrique,  le,  271,  337,  386 
and  note,  387 

(cited),  136,  324,  328  and  note, 
333  and  note 

Du  Bois  (agent  of  Henri  III.  in 
Flanders),  221,  222,  223 

Du     Guast,     Louis    de    Beranger, 

Seigneur 

his  character  and  personal  appear- 
ance, 23  and  note,  24  ;  his  in- 
fluence over  Henri  III.,  24  and 
note  ;  informs  Henri  of  Mar- 
guerite's intimacy  with  the  Due 
de  Guise,  26  ;  intercepts  a  letter 
from  the  duke  to  Marguerite,  41  ; 
enmity  between  him  and  the 
princess,  160,  161  ;  engages 
Madame  de  Sauve  to  sow  dissen- 
sion between  Monsieur  and  the 
King  of  Navarre,  and  between  the 
latter  and  his  wife,  162,  163  ; 
accuses  the  Queen  of  Navarre  of 
a  liaison  with  Bussy  d'Amboise, 
164,  165  ;  lays  an  ambush  for 
Bussy,  1 68,  169 ;  causes  Mar- 
guerite's favourite  maid-of-hon- 
our to  be  dismissed,  173  ;  his 
attempt  upon  Mile,  de  Thorigny, 
177  ;  assassinated  by  the  Baron 
de  Viteaux,  173-183 

Dumas,  Alexandre,  pere,  106  note, 
164 

Du  Perron,  Cardinal,  137  note 

Du  Pin  (secretary  to  the  King  of 
Navarre),  257,  259 

Duplessis-Mornay,  297-299,  303 
and  note,  345,  346,  347,  348,  351, 
386,  387 

Dupleix,  Scipion  (cited),  295  note, 
368 

Duras,  Vicomte  de,  193,  318,  319, 
325,  327 

Duras,  Vicomtesse  de,  283,  294, 
295,  296,  297,  318,  320,  322 

Du  Vair,  387 

(cited),  136  note 

EGMONT,  Comte  d',  205,  223 
Elisabeth  de  Bourbon  (daughter  of 
Henri  IV.  and  Marie  de'  Medici), 

.  370,  381.  384 
Elisabeth     de     Valois,     Queen     of 

Spain,  3,  14,  16  and  note 
Elizabeth,   Queen  of  England,   53, 

119,  120,  134 
Elizabeth    of    Austria,    Queen    of 

France,  112,  114,  128,  341,  346 


397 


INDEX 


Emmanuel  Philibert,  Duke  of  Savoy, 

3,  145,  151  note 
Entragues,  Fra^ois  d'.    See  Balzac 

d'Entragues 
Entragues,  Henriette  d'.     See  Ver- 

neuil,  Marquise  de 
fipernon,  Due  d',  159,  289  and  note, 

290,  293,  307,  308,  309,  312 
Estrees,  Antoine  d'  (father  of  Ga- 

brielle  d'Estrees),  351 
Estrdes,    Gabrielle.     See    Beaufort, 

Duchesse  de 

firard  (ntattre  des  requites  to  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois),  345,  346,  347, 

348 
Escars,  Charles  d',  Bishop  of  Lan- 

gres,  201,  295 

FAVYN  (cited),  50  note,  77 
Ferrand    (secretary    to   Marguerite 
de  Valois),   suspected  of  an  at- 
tempt to  poison  the  King  of  Na- 
varre, 313  and  note 
Fleix,  Peace  of,  268,  269 
Flemming,  Madame  de,  286 
Fleurance  and  La  Reole,  affair  of, 

251-253 

Fleurines,  Madame  de,  223,  224 

Fleurines,  M.  de,  223,  224 

Fosseux,  Mile,  de  ("  Fosseuse  ") 
accompanies  Marguerite  de  Valois 
to  Gascony,  248  ;  beloved  by 
Henri  of  Navarre,  261  ;  but 
conducts  herself  "  with  virtue 
and  propriety,"  261  ;  rivalry 
between  the  King  of  Navarre  and 
Monsieur  over  her,  269,  270 ; 
becomes  Henri's  mistress,  273  ; 
goes  to  Eaux-Chandes,  274  ;  in- 
trigues against  the  Queen  of  Na- 
varre, 274  ;  a  subject  for  scan- 
dalous talk,  275  ;  her  conversa- 
tion with  Marguerite,  276  ;  gives 
birth  to  a  child,  277,  278  ;  accom- 
panies the  Queen  of  Navarre  to 
Paris,  279  ;  dismissed  from  her 
service,  284 ;  married  to  the 
Baron  de  Cinq-Mars,  285  ;  indig- 
nation of  the  King  of  Navarre  on 
learning  of  her  dismissal,  285  ; 
letters  from  Marguerite  and 
Catherine  de'  Medici  to  him  on 
this  matter,  285-287 

Foulon,  Joseph   (Abbe   of    Sainte- 
Genevidve),  242  and  note,  243 

Fourquevaux  (French  Ambassador 
in  Madrid),  47,  48  and  note,  49 

Francesco  de'  Medici.  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  357 


Francoeur  (Chancellor  of  Navarre), 

55.  7.0 
Fran9ois  I.,   King  of  France,  2,  3, 

32,  83,  366  note,  372  note,  382 
Fran9ois  II.,  King  of  France,  3 
Freer,  Miss  (cited),  78,  79 

GANDY,  M.  Georges  (cited),  52,  53 
Genissac,  Bertrand  de  Pierrebufftere, 

Seigneur  de,  195  and  note 
Godefroy,     Jean,     his     edition     of 

Marguerite  de  Valois's  Memoires, 

340,  34i 

Gonzague,  Ludovic  de,  208 
Grand-Champ  (French  Ambassador 

in  Constantinople),  66 
Gramont,  Comte  de,  231,  232 
Gramont,   Corisande,   Comtesse   de 

("la  belle  Corisande  "),  300,  313, 

315.  351 

Granvelle,  Cardinal  de,  14 
Gregory  XIII.,   Pope,   73,   85   and 

note,  112,  350 
Groesbeck,  Gerard  (Bishop  of  LiSge), 

212,  213,  215,  216,  217,  219 
Guessard,  M.,   his  edition  of  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois's  Memoires,  131 

note,  341 
Guillart,  jean,  Bishop  of  Chartres, 

76  note 
Guise,   Anne   d'Este,   Duchesse   de 

(wife  of   Fran9ois   de    Lorraine).! 

See  Nemours,  Duchesse  de 
Guise,  Catherine  de  CISves  (wife  of 

Henri  de  Lorraine),   38,   39,  43, 

44.  79 

Guise,  Fran9ois  de  Lorraine,  Due 
de,  4,  12  and  note,  33  and  note 

Guise,  Henri  de  Lorraine,  Due  de 
"  turning  his  thoughts  upon  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois,"  25  ;  her  pre- 
dilection for  him  denied  by  Mar- 
guerite in  her  Memoires,  25,  26 
note  ;'  his  early  career,  33,  34  ; 
his  character,  34-36  ;  hatred 
with  which  he  is  regarded  by 
Henri  de  Valois,  37  ;  aspires  to 
the  hand  of  Marguerite,  38-40  ; 
his  intimacy  with  her  the  chief 
topic  of  conversation  at  Court, 
41  ;  his  correspondence  with  her 
intercepted,  41  ;  forbidden  to 
approach  her,  41  ;  Henri  d'An- 
goulfeme  ordered  by  Charles  IX. 
to  assassinate  him,  42  ;  urged 
by  his  mother  and  the  Duchess  of 
Lorraine  to  renounce  his  preten- 
sions to  the  princess's  hand,  43  ; 
stormy  scene  batween  him  and 


398 


INDEX 


Guise,  Henri  de  Lorraine,  Due  de — 

continued 

Charles  IX.  at  the  Louvre,  44  ; 
marries  the  Princesse  de  Porcien, 
44  ;  consequences  of  his  love 
affair  with  Marguerite,  44,  45  ; 
at  the  wedding  of  Marguerite  and 
Henri  of  Navarre,  88  note  ;  the 
idol  of  the  populace  of  Paris,  89  ; 
takes  part  in  a  tournament  in 
front  of  the  Louvre,  92  ;  a  party 
to  the  attempt  upon  the  life  of 
Coligny,  95,  96  ;  undertakes  to 
superintend  the  assassination  of 
the  Admiral,  104  ;  his  insolent 
behaviour  towards  the  King  of 
Navarre,  113  note  ;  warns  Mar- 
guerite that  she  is  credited  with 
"  a  very  dangerous  form  of  bene- 
volence," 148  note,  149  ;  defeats 
Thore  at  Dormans  and  earns  the 
sobriquet  of  "  le  Bnlafre,"  175  ; 
makes  a  tentative  attempt  to 
carry  out  the  Cardinal  de  Lor- 
raine's scheme  of  the  League,  191 ; 
said  to  have  followed  Marguerite 
to  Flanders,  203  ;  ridicules  the 
King  of  Navarre,  264  ;  "  grown 
thin  and  much  aged,"  284  ;  in 
communication  with  Marguerite 
after  her  flight  to  Agen,  316  ; 
entreats  Philip  IL  to  send  her 
money,  320  ;  his  dealings  with 
her  revealed  to  Henri  III.,  326  ; 
his  letter  to  Mendoza,  334,  335  ; 
sends  a  body  of  troops  to  Usson 
for  Marguerite's  protection,  336  ; 
assassinated  at  Blois,  336.  See 
also  Guises  and  League 

Guises,   the,  4,   26,    109.    191,   192, 
268,  310,  311,  320,  334 

Guitry  Berticheres,   Sieur  de  (Hu- 
guenot leader),  126, 173 

HAMILTON  of  Bothwellhaugh  (assas- 
sin of  the  Regent  Murray),  97 

Hardelay,  Jean  de  Bourdeille,  Sieur 
de,  167  and  note 

Harlay,   Achille   (President  of   the 
Parlement  of  Paris),  293 

Havrec,  Marquis  d',  208,  209 

Havrec,  Marquise  d',  205 

Henault,  President  (cited),  8 

Henri   d'Albret,    King   of   Navarre 
(father  of  Jeanne  d'Albret),  2 

Henri  II.,  King  of  France,  i,  2,  81, 
140,  141,  155,  287,  359  note 

Henri  III.,  King  of  France 

persecutes  Marguerite  to  induce 


Henri   III.,   King  of    France— cow- 

tinned 

her  to  embrace  Protestantism,  9, 
10  ;  proposes  to  her  a  political 
r6le,  20-22  ;  appointed  Lieu- 
tenant-General  of  the  Kingdom, 
20  note  ;  lays  siege  to  Saint- 
Jean  d'Angely,  23  ;  influence  of 
his  favourite  Du  Guast  over  him, 
24  and  note  ;  accuses  Marguerite 
of  encouraging  the  attentions  of 
the  Due  de  Guise,  24,  25  ;  his 
perfidious  conduct,  37  ;  his  ha- 
tred of  Guise,  37,  38  ;  hands  an 
intercepted  letter  from  the  duke 
to  Marguerite  to  the  King  and 
Catherine,  41  ;  utters  threats 
against  Guise,  44  ;  "  endeavours 
to  domineer  "  over  Jeanne  d'Al- 
bre  ,  62  ;  magnificence  of  his 
attire  on  the  day  of  Marguerite's 
wedding,  86,  87  ;  devises  and 
takes  part  in  an  allegorical  enter- 
tainment at  the  Hotel  du  Petit- 
Bourbon,  90-92  ;  plots  with  his 
mother  the  assassination  of  Co- 
ligny, 95  ;  suspected  by  the  Hu- 
guenots of  the  outrage,  98  ;  terri- 
fied by  fear  of  his  guilt  being 
brought  home  to  him,  99  ;  plans 
with  Catherine  and  her  confidants 
the  Massacre  of  St.  Barttio- 
lomew,  100  ;  compelled  to  raise 
the  siege  of  La  Rochelle,  119; 
elected  King  of  Poland,  lao ; 
visit  of  the  Polish  envoys  to  Paris 
to  offer  him  the  crown,  120,  121  ; 
leaves  France,  122  ;  vainly  en- 
deavours to  effect  a  reconciliation 
with  Marguerite,  123  ;  declared 
by  Charles  IX.  his  lawful  heir 
and  successor,  141  ;  Catherine's 
letter  to  him,  143  ;  his  flight 
from  Cracow,  144,  145  ;  visits 
Vienna  and  Italy,  140 ;  his 
meeting  with  the  Royal  Family 
and  the  Court  at  Bourgoin,  145, 
146 ;  calumniates  Marguerite, 
147-150;  his  extravagant  grief 
at  the  death  of  his  mistress,  the 
Princesse  de  Conde,  151  and  note; 
his  despicable  conduct  towards 
the  Due  d'Amville,  151  note; 
joins  the  Flagellants  at  Avignon, 
152  ;  his  coronation,  153  ;  his 
marriage  with  Louise  de  Vaude- 
mont,  154  ;  endeavours  to  com- 
pel Fran£ois  de  Luxembourg  to 
marry  his  discarded  mistress. 


399 


INDEX 


Henri   III,,    King    of    France— con- 
tinued 

Renee  de  Chftteauneuf,  1 54,  155 
and  note ;  his  character,  157, 
185  ;  his  follies  and  extrava- 
gance, 158,  159  and  note  ;  his 
mignons,  159,  160  ;  accuses  Mar- 
guerite of  a  liaison  with  Bussy 
d'Amboise,  165,  166;  persuades 
Henri  of  Navarre  to  dismiss  Mlle^ 
de  Thorigny  from  his  wife's  ser- 
vice, 171  ;  his  contemptuous 
treatment  of  Monsieur,  173  ;  his 
fury  at  his  brother's  escape,  174  ; 
places  Marguerite  under  arrest, 
176,  177  ;  disgraces  the  Baron  de 
Viteaux  at  the  request  of  Du 
Guast,  179  ;  subjects  Marguerite 
to  a  rigorous  confinement  after 
the  flight  of  her  husband,  185  ; 
alarmed  at  the  coalition  formed 
against  him,  186  ;  invites  Mar- 
guerite's co-operation  in  favour 
of  peace,  187  ;  concludes  the 
Treaty  of  Beaulieu,  187,  188  ; 
alarmed  at  the  formation  of  the 
League,  194 ;  refuses  to  allow 
Marguerite  to  return  to  her  hus- 
band, 195,  196 ;  declines  Loig- 
nac's  offer  to  assassinate  the 
King  of  Navarre,  197  note  ;  gives 
Marguerite  permission  to  go  to 
Flanders,  200 ;  warns  the  Span- 
iards of  the  true  object  of  her 
journey,  224;  receives  her  very 
cordiafiy  on  her  return  to  Paris  ; 
promises  to  permit  to  return  to 
her  husband,  and  to  assign  her 
her  dowry  in  land,  229,  230 ; 
opposed  to  Anjou's  Flemish 
enterprise,  230,  231  ;  intervenes 
to  prevent  an  affray  between  his 
mignons  and  Bussy  and  his  friends, 
232  ;  enacts  Ordinances  against 
duelling,  232  ;  his  extraordinary 
behaviour  towards  Monsieur,  235, 
236  ;  formally  reconciled  to  him, 
237.  238  ;  causes  him  to  be  kept 
under  close  surveillance,  238  ; 
his  anger  on  learning  of  his 
brother's  escape,  243  ;  assigns 
Marguerite  her  dowry  in  lands, 
246 ;  restores  La  Reole  to  the 
King  of  Navarre,  252  ;  accuses 
Marguerite  of  a  liaison  with 
Turenne,  262,  263  ;  informs  the 
Comte  de  Montsoreau  of  Bussy's 
relations  with  his  wife,  263  note ; 
acts  with  vigour  against  the  Hu- 


Henri    III.,  King   of   France — con- 
tinued 

guenots,  266 ;  glad  to  make 
peace,  268  ;  invites  Marguerite 
to  Court,  278-280  ;  receives  her 
cordially  and  consents  to  an  in- 
crease of  her  appanage,  283  ;  his 
relations  with  her  again  very 
strained,  289,  290 ;  subornes  one 
of  her  waiting-women  to  inform 
him  of  her  amours,  291  ;  grossly 
insults  her  at  a  ball  at  the  Louvre 
and  orders  her  to  leave  Paris,  293; 
causes  her  and  some  of  her  people 
to  be  arrested  near  Palaiseau, 
294  ;  interrogates  Mesdames  de 
Duras  and  de  Bethune  in  regard 
to  his  sister's  conduct,  294,  295  ; 
releases  Marguerite,  295  ;  his 
letter  to  the  King  of  Navarre, 
296  ;  refuses  to  give  him  a  satis- 
factory explanation  of  his  treat- 
ment of  his  wife,  297-300  ;  sends 
Bellievre  to  him,  301  ;  "  does 
him  too  much  honour,"  302  ; 
praises  him  to  Duplessis-Mornay, 
303  ;  sends  d'Epernon  on  a 
mission  to  him  after  the  death 
of  Monsieur,  307-309  ;  coerced 
into  giving  the  League  his  coun- 
tenance and  support,  310-311  ; 
signs  the  Treaty  of  Nemours,  311 
and  note  ;  his  anger  on  learning 
of  Marguerite's  coup  d'etat  at 
Agen,  318  ;  orders  her  to  leave 
the  Chateau  of  Carlat,  329  ;  causes 
her  to  be  arrested  by  the  Mar- 
quis de  Canillac,  330  ;  his  letters 
to  Villeroy  concerning  her,  331, 
332  ;  sinister  designs  attributed 
to  him  in  regard  to  her,  334,  335 
and  note  ;  compels  Catherine  to 
disinherit  her  in  favour  of  Charles 
de  Valois,  336  ;  his  flight  from 
Paris,  336 ;  assassinated  by 
Jacques  Clement,  336 

Henri  IV.,  King  of  France 

project  of  marriage  between  him 
and  Marguerite  de  Valois,  50-56  ; 
Jeanne  d'Albret's  letter  to  him 
from  Blois,  62-64  ;  declines 
Charles  IX.'s  invitation  to  Court, 
65  ;  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his 
marriage  with  Marguerite,  67- 
75  ;  his  grief  on  learning  of  his 
mother's  death,  80 ;  his  entry 
into  Paris,  80,  81  ;  his  marriage, 
85-90 ;  takes  part  in  an  alle- 
gorical entertainment  at  the 


400 


INDEX 


Henri    IV.,    King    of    France— con- 
tinued 

Hdtel  de  Petit-Bourbon,  90-92  ; 
sends  his  Swiss'guards  to  protect 
Coligny,  98  ;  determines  to  de- 
mand justice  of  Charles  IX.  for 
the  attempt  upon  the  Admiral's 
life,  106 ;  butchery  of  his  fol- 
lowers at  the  St.  Bartholomew, 
108  ;  ordered  to  abjure  his  reli 
gion  on  pain  of  death,  109  ; 
receives  instruction  in  the  Catho- 
lic faith,  in  ;  abjures  Protes- 
tantism, 112;  his  unenviable 
position  at  the  French  Court,  112, 
113  and  note  ;  neglects  his  wife 
and  indulges  in  numerous  gallan- 
tries, 117  ;  remains  the  secret 
chief  of  the  Huguenots,  120  ;  his 
attempt  to  escape  from  Court 
revealed  by  Marguerite  to  the 
King  and  Catherine,  124,  125  ; 
failure  of  Guitry's  plan  to  effect 
his  liberation,  126,  127  ;  arrested 
and  imprisoned  in  the  keep  of 
Vincennes,  128,  129  ;  able  me- 
moir in  his  defence  drawn  up  by 
Marguerite,  130,  131  and  note  ; 
her  proposal  to  enable  him  to 
escape,  132,  133;  his  conversa- 
tion with  the  dying  King,  141  ;  his 
reception  by  Henri  III.,  on  the 
latter's  return  to  France,  146  : 
does  not  believe  the  King's 
charge  against  his  wife  at  Lyons, 
147,  148  ;  takes  an  oath  of 
fidelity  to  Henri  III.,  150,  151  ; 
joins  the  processions  of  the  Fla- 
gellants at  Avignon,  153  ;  in- 
fatuated with  Madame  de  Sauve, 
163  ;  "  seized  with  a  very  serious 
indisposition,"  170 ;  quarrels 
with  his  wife,  171  ;  his  position 
at  the  French  Court  becoming 
increasingly  irksome,  172,  173  ; 
makes  his  escape,  182-184  ;  re- 
fused admission  to  Bordeaux, 
192  ;  demands  that  Marguerite 
and  his  sister,  Catherine,  shall 
be  sent  back  to  him,  193  ;  sends 
the  Vicomte  de  Duras  to  Henri 
III.  to  demand  his  wife,  193  ; 
and  the  Seigneur  de  Genissac, 
195,  196  ;  proposal  of  Loignac  to 
assassinate  him,  197  note  ;  meets 
his  wife  and  Catherine  de'  Medici 
at  Casteras,  249  ;  in  love  with 
Mile.  Dayelle,  249,  250  ;  refuses 
to  hold  a  conference  at  Isle- 


Henri    IV.,    King    of    France— con- 
tinued 

Jourdain,  251  ;  joins  his  wife 
and  Catherine  at  Auch,  251  ;  his 
part  in  the  affair  of  La  Reole  and 
Fleurance,  252,  253  ;  his  gallan- 
tries at  Nerac,  254  ;  makes 
Mile,  de  Rebours  his  mistress, 
256  ;  annoyed  with  his  wife  for 
intervening  on  behalf  of  her  co- 
religionists, 258,  259  ;  falls  ill  at 
Eauze,  259  ;  in  love  with  Fos- 
seuse,  261  ;  "  on  familiar  terms  " 
with  a  waiting-woman  of  his 
wife,  261  ;  feigns  to  disbelieve 
Henri  III.'s  charge  against  Mar- 
guerite and  Turenne,  263  ;  in- 
duced to  resume  hostilities,  268  ; 
storms  Cahors,  265,  266  ;  block- 
aded by  Biron  in  Nerac.  267  ; 
rivalry  between  him  and  Mon- 
sieur over  Fosseuse,  269,  270  ; 
compelled  by  Marguerite  to  dis- 
grace ostensibly  d'Aubigne,  271  ; 
makes  Fosseuse  his  mistress,  273  ; 
follows  her  to  Eaux-Chaudes 
275  ;  takes  her  part  against  his 
wife,  276 ;  compelled  to  seek 
Marguerite's  assistance,  in  order 
to  avoid  a  scandal,  276-278  ; 
opposed  to  his  wife  visiting  the 
French  Court,  279,  280  ;  meeting 
with  Catherine  de'  Medici  at  La 
Mothe-Sainte-Heraye,  282  ;  Mar 
guerite's  letters  to  him,  283,  284  ; 
indignant  at  her  dismissal  of 
Fosseuse  from  her  service,  284, 
285  ;  letters  of  Marguerite  and 
Catherine  to  him  in  reference  to 
this  matter,  285-287  ;  informed 
of  his  wife's  arrest  near  Palaiseau, 
296,  297  ;  sends  Duplessis-Mor- 
nay  to  Henri  III.  to  demand  an 
explanation,  297-299 ;  sends 
d'Aubigne  to  Saint-Germain, 
with  the  same  object,  300,  301  ; 
declines  to  receive  his  wife,  pend- 
ing a  satisfactory  explanation 
from  the  King,  302  ;  in  love  with 
the  Comtesse  de  Gramont  ("  la 
belle  Corisande  "),  302  ;  recon- 
ciled to  Marguerite,  303  ;  his 
reception  of  his  wife  on  her 
return  to  Nerac,  304,  305  ;  be- 
comes heir-presumptive  to  the 
throne  of  France,  306  ;  d'Eper 
non's  mission  to  him,  307-309  ; 
refuses  to  visit  the  Court  or  to  go 
to  Mass,  309  ;  treats  Marguerite 

401  2  c 


INDEX 


Henri    IV.,    King    of    France — con- 
tinued 

with  indifference  and  contempt, 
312  ;  suspects  her  secretary, 
Ferran,  of  an  attempt  to  poison 
him,  313  ;  contemplates  severe 
measures  against  his  wife,  313  ; 
gives  her  permission  to  visit  Agen, 
314 ;  drives  her  troops  out  of 
Tonneins,  319  ;  destroys  the 
force  sent  by  her  into  Beam,  319  ; 
hard  pressed  for  money,  341 
note  ;  gains  the  Battle  of  Ivry, 
343  ;  felicitated  by  Marguerite 
on  his  accession  to  the  throne  of 
France,  344  ;  determines  to  pro- 
cure the  dissolution  of  their 
marriage,  344,  345  ;  his  corres- 
pondence with  his  wife,  347-349  ; 
finds  himself  compelled  to  appeal 
to  the  Vatican,  349,  350  ;  his 
passion  for  Gabrielle  d'Estrees, 
351-353  ;  desires  to  marry  her, 
353.  354  :  attempts  to  intimi- 
date the  Pope,  355,  356 ;  his 
grief  at  Gabrielle's  death,  356, 

,  357  ;  negotiations  for  his  mar- 
riage with  Marie  de'  Medici,  357  ; 
his  marriage  with  Marguerite 
dissolved,  357,  358  ;  his  letter  to 
her,  359  ;  his  passion  for  Hen- 
riette  d'Entragues,  361,  362  ; 
gives  her  a  conditional  promise 
of  marriage,  362,  363  ;  marries 
Marie  de'  Medici,  363  ;  corres- 
ponds with  Marguerite,  364,  365  ; 
gives  her  permission  to  leave 
Usson  for  the  Chateau  of  Madrid, 
366,  367  ;  sends  the  Due  de  Ven- 
dflme  and  Harlay  de  Chanvallon 
to  greet  her  on  her  arrival,  368, 
369  ;  his  visit  to  her,  369,  370  ; 
receives  her  at  the  Louvre,  370, 
371  ;  the  best  of  friends  with  her, 
371,  372  ;  jests  at  her  expense, 
378,  379  :  prepares  for  a  general 
attack  on  the  possessions  of  the 
House  of  Austria,  38 1  ;  appoints 
Marie  de'  Medici  Regent,  381  ; 
urges  Marguerite  to  attend  the 
Queen's  coronation,  381  ;  assas- 
sinated by  Ravaillac,  382 

Heroard,  J.  (cited),  372 

Hopital,  Michel  del',  6,  18 

IMBERT  de  Saint-Amand,  Baron 
(cited),  38,  114 

Inchy,M.d' (commandant  of  the  cita- 
del of  Cambrai),  204,  205, 207,  269 


Isabella,  Infanta  (daughter  of 
Philip  II.  and  Elisabeth  de 
Valois),  312  note 

Ivry,  Battle  of,  253  note,  343,  382 

JARNAC,  Battle  of,  19,  89  note 

Jeanne  d'Albret,  Queen  of  Navarre 

(mother  of  Henri) 
her  religious  intolerance,  16,  17  ; 
disapproves  of  the  proposed  mar- 
riage between  her  son  and  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois,  54  ;  but  yields 
to  the  representations  of  Coligny 
and  her  councillors,  55  ;  her 
journey  to  Blois,  57,  58  ;  favour- 
ably impressed  by  Marguerite, 
58,  59  ;  confers  with  Catherine 
de'  Medici  respecting  the  marriage 
articles,  60,  61  ;  warmly  wel- 
comed by  Charles  IX.  on  her 
arrival  at  Court,  61  ;  her  letter 
to  Henri  of  Navarre,  62-64  ; 
consults  the  Huguenot  divines 
and  the  English  Ambassadors, 
67-69  ;  dowers  her  son,  71  ; 
reluctantly  consents  to  the  mar- 
riage taking  place  in  Paris,  72  ; 
supports  the  demands  of  the 
Huguenot  divines  in  regard  to 
the  ceremonial  to  be  observed, 
74,  75  ;  visits  Paris,  76,  77  ;  her 
death,  77  ;  suspicion  of  her 
having  been  poisoned  unjustified, 
77-79 

Joinville,  Prince  de.  See  Guise, 
Henri  de  Lorraine,  Due  de 

Joyeuse,  Anne  d'Arques,  Due  de, 
159,  289  and  note,  291,  292,  336 

Juan  of  Austria,  Don 

his  opinion  of  Marguerite  de 
Valois,  29  ;  becomes  Governor- 
General  of  the  Netherlands,  207  ; 
meeting  between  him  and  the 
Queen  of  Navarre,  208  ;  his  per- 
sonal appearance,  208  ;  enter- 
tains Marguerite  magnificently 
at  Namur,  208-211  ;  attempts 
to  capture  her  at  Dinant  and 
Fleurines,  220-224 

KANARSKI,  Adam  (Bishop  of  Posen), 
32,  121 

LA  FERRIERE,  Comte  Hector  de 
(cited),  23  note,  29,  60,  335,  369, 
386  and  note,  387 

La  Fin,  129  note 

La  Guesle  (procureur-gintral),  129, 
358 

La  Huguerye  (cited),  305 


402 


INDEX 


Lalain,  Comte  de  (Grand  Bailiff  of 
Hainault),  205-207,  220,  223, 
224,  225, 227 

Lalain,  Comtesse  de,  205,  206,  225 
Lalanne,  M.  Ludovic,  his  edition  of 
Marguerite  de  Valois's  Memoires, 

34i 

La  M61e 

his  liaison  with  Marguerite  de 
Valois,  181  ;  his  singular  charac- 
ter, 181  ;  betrays  Guitry's  scheme 
for  the  liberation  of  Henri  of 
Navarre  and  Alen9on  to  Mar- 
guerite, who  informs  her  mother, 
127  ;  arrested  with  the  Comte 
de  Coconnas,  129  ;  accused  of 
practising  sorcery  against  the 
life  of  Charles  IX.,  129  ;  put  to 
the  question,  1 30  ;  condemned  to 
death,  134  ;  futile  intercession 
of  Elizabeth  of  England  and  the 
Due  d'Alen9on  on  his  behalf,  134  ; 
executed,  135  ;  Marguerite's  grief 
at  his  death,  136,  137  and  note  ; 
his  execution  formally  declared 
to  have  been  a  miscarriage  of  jus- 
tice, i 88  note 

Langlois,  Martin  (one  of  Marguerite 
de  Valois's  procurators  in  the 
divorce  proceedings),  353,  354 
and  note,  357 

La  Noue,  70,  103  and  note,  126,  144 

La  Peyre-Teule   (Huguenot  chief), 

32S 

La  Planche  (cited),  77 
Larchamp  de  Grimonville,   arrests 

the  Queen,  of  Navarre  near  Palai- 

seau,  294 

La  Reole  and  Fleurance,  251-253 
La  Souch6re,   Louis  de   (Governor 

of  the  Chateau  of  Ibois)  330 
Lastic,  Jean   (chevalier  d'honneur  to 

the  Queen  of  Navarre),  343 
Lauzun,  M.  Philippe,  329  note 
League,  the,  191,  192,  310,  311, 

314,  320,  334,  338,  343 
Leicester,  Earl  of,  134 
Le    Maignan,     Henri     (Bishop    of 

Digne),  n 
Le  Moyne  (favourite  of  Marguerite 

de  Valois),  337  note 
Lenoncourt,  Philippe  de,  Bishop  of 

Auxerre,  201,  215,  221 
Leran,  Vicomte  de,  saved  by  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois  at  the  Massacre 

of  St.  Bartholomew,  106  and  note 
Leroy,  Etienne  (singer),  12,  89  note 
Le  Royer  (Secretary  to  Jeanne 

d'Albret),  70 


L'Estoile,  379,  387 

(cited),  77,  113  note,  116,  140, 
144,  155,  159,  160,  165,  199  note, 
231,  232,  233,  247,  282,  294, 
307,  310  note,  370,  371,  377, 
379-  382 

Liancourt,  Nicolas  d' Amerval,  Seign- 
eur de  (husband  of  Gabrielle 
d'Estrees),  351,  352 

Lignerac,  Fransois  Robert  de 

entrusted  by  the  Queen  of  Na- 
varre with  the  command  of  her 
troops  at  Agen,  317  ;  assists  her 
to  escape  from  Agen  and  con- 
ducts her  to  the  Chateau  of 
Carlat,  322,  323  ;  becomes  Super- 
intendent of  her  Household,  327  j 
assassinates  a  young  man  in  the 
Queen's  bedchamber,  in  a  fit  of 
jealousy,  329  and  note 

Livarot  (mignon  of  Henri  III.), 
231 

Loignac,  195  note,  197  note 

Lorges,  Gabriel  Montgommery, 
Comte,  3,  4,  10,  81,  126,  133,  i**- 
144,  188 

Lorraine,  Cardinal  de,  5,  37,  +„. 
128,  142,  152,  153,  191 

Losse,  Sieur  de  (Captain  of  the 
Scottish  Guard),  235,  236,  237 

Louis  XL,  333 

Louis  XII.,  83,  382 

Louis  XIII.,  363,  370,  375,  377 

Louis  XIV.,  2,  157 

Louise  de  Coligny,  Princess  of 
Orange,  81,  355 

Louise  de  Vaudemont,  Queen  of 
France,  154,  158,  183,  284,  291, 
292,  367  note 

"  Lovers'  War,"  the,  264-268,  278 

Loys  de  Torres,  Don  (envoy  of 
Pius  V.),  49 

Luxembourg,  Fran£ois  de,  154,  155 

MACHIAVELLI,  262 

Maimbourg,  Louis  (cited),  52 

Maldonato,  Pere,  in 

Malherbe,  614 

Marie  de'  Medici,  Queen  of  France 
negotiations  for  her  marriage 
with  Henri  IV.,  357  ;  married  at 
Florence,  363  ;  gives  birth  to  a 
Dauphin,  363  ;  receives  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois  at  the  Louvre, 
371  ;  on  friendly  terms  with  her 
predecessor,  372  ;  begs  her  to 
superintend  the  organisation  of 
her  files,  376,  377  ;  appointed 
Regent  during  Henri  IV.'s  in- 


403 


INDEX 


Marie  de'  Medici,  Qneen  of  France— 

continued. 

tended  absence,  381  ;  her  coro- 
nation, 381,  382  ;  declines  to 
credit  the  statements  of  the 
woman  Comans  in  regard  to  the 
assassination  of  the  King,  383  ; 
present  at  the  ball  given  by  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois  in  honour  of  the 
Duke  of  Pastrana,  384 

Marguerite  d'Angoulfime,  Queen  of 
Navarre,  2,  32 

Marguerite   de   Valois,   Duchess  of 
Savoy,  3,  13,  166  and  note 

Marguerite  de  Valois,  Queen  of  Na- 
varre 

her  charms  described  by  Bran- 
t6me,  I  ;  typical  of  the  Valois, 
2  ;  her  birth,  2  ;  early  years,  3, 
4  ;  persecuted  by  her  brother, 
Henri,  for  the  sake  of  her  religion, 
9,  10  ;  sent  to  the  Chateau  of 
Amboise,  n  ;  her  education,  u, 
12  ;  accompanies  the  Court  on 
the  "  grand  voyage,"  12-17  ;  poli- 
tical rdle  proposed  to  her  by  her 
brother  Aniou,  20-22  ;  becomes 
her  mother  s  confidante,  22,  23  ; 
accused  by  Henri  d'Anjou  of  en- 
couraging the  attentions  of  the 
Due  de  Guise,  24  ;  denies  her 
predilection  for  Guise  in  her 
M&moires,  25,  26  ;  her  beauty, 
elegance,  and  intelligence,  28- 
33  ;  falls  ill  at  Saint-Jean-d'An- 
gely,  36,  37  ;  her  love-affair  with 
Guise,  37-45  ;  negotiations  for 
her  marriage  to  Dom  Sebastian  of 
Portugal,  46-49 ;  project  of 
marriage  between  her  and  Henri 
of  Navarre,  50-56 ;  her  hand 
demanded  by  Dom  Sebastian, 
but  refused  by  Charles  IX.,  58, 
59  ;  makes  a  favourable  impres- 
sion upon  Jeanne  d'Albret,  59, 
60 ;  not  permitted  any  private 
conversation  with  the  Queen  of 
Navarre,  62  ;  "  speaks  as  she 
has  been  commanded  to  speak," 
64 ;  Brantdme's  description  of 
her  appearance  on  Palm  Sunday 
at  Blois,  65-67  ;  obstacles  to  her 
marriage  to  Henri  of  Navarre, 
67-75  I  relates  an  "  amusing  in- 
cident," 79,  80 ;  her  marriage, 
85-89  ;  her  account  of  her  ad- 
ventures during  the  Massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  105-108  ;  mag- 
nanimously refuses  Catherine's 


Marguerite    de    Valois,     Queen    of 

Navarre — continued 
otter  to  have  her  marriage  an- 
nulled, 109,  no;  urges  her 
husband  to  abjure  Protestantism, 
in  ;  constitutes  herself  his  ally, 
113;  unhappy  in  her  married 
life,  116,  117;  her  liaison  with 
La  M61e,  1 1 8  ;  refuses  to  be 
reconciled  to  her  brother,  Henri, 
122,  123  ;  warns  Charles  IX.  and 
Catherine  of  her  husband  and 
Alen9on's  intended  escape,  124- 
126  ;  persuades  La  M61e  to 
reveal  to  her  the  conspiracy  of 
the  "  Politiques,"  and  informs 
the  Queen -Mother,  126,  127  ; 
draws  up  an  able  memoir  on 
behalf  of  her  husband,  130,  131  ; 
offers  to  assist  Alen9on  and  her 
husband  to  escape  from  Vin- 
cennes,  132,  133  ;  her  grief  at 
the  execution  of  La  M61e,  136, 
137  and  note  ;  regrets  the  death 
of  Charles  IX.  ;  meets  Henri  III. 
at  Bourgoin  on  his  returnjfrom 
Poland,  145,  146 ;  accused  by 
him  of  "  a  very  dangerous  form 
of  benevolence,"  146-148  ;  has 
a  stormy  interview  with  her 
mother,  149  ;  succeeds  in  estab- 
lishing her  innocence,  158  ;  takes 
part  in  the  processions  of  the 
Flagellants  at  Avignon,  152  ; 
enmity  between  her  and  Henri 
III.'s  favourite,  Du  Guast,  161, 
162  ;  endeavours  to  save  her 
husband  and  Alen9on  from  the 
wiles  of  Madame  de  Sauve,  163  ; 
accused  by  Du  Guast  and  Henri 
III.  of  a  liaison  with  Bussy  d'Am- 
boise,  164-167  ;  betrays  her  pre- 
dilection for  Bussy  in  her  Mi- 
moires,  167  ;  assists  her  husband 
when  seized  with  a  sudden  illness, 
170  ;  violent  quarrel  between  her 
and  the  King  of  Navarre,  171  ; 
placed  under  arrest  in  her  apart- 
ments, after  the  escape  of  Mon- 
sieur, 175-177  ;  question  of  her 
complicity  in  the  assassination  of 
Du  Guast  by  the  Baron  de  Vi- 
teaux  considered,  178-182  ;  sub- 
jected to  a  rigorous  confinement 
after  the  escape  of  Henri  of 
Navarre,  185  ;  accompanies  her 
mother  to  negotiate  with  Alen- 
9on,  187;  wishes  to  rejoin  her 
husband,  but  is  persuaded  by 


404 


INDEX 


Marguerite    de    Valois,     Queen    of 

Navarre — continued 
Catherine  to  return  to  Paris,  188, 
189  ;  retained  at  Court  by  Henri 
[II.  against  her  will,  193-196  ; 
determines  to  proceed  to  Flanders 
to  promote  the  interests  of  her 
brother,  Anjou,  197-200  ;  accom- 
panies the  Court  to  Chenonceaux, 
201  ;  her  journey  to  Flanders, 
201-203  ;  arrives  at  Cambrai 
and  seduces  the  commandant  of 
the  citadel  from  his  allegiance, 
203,  204  ;  wins  over  the  Comte 
and  Comtesse  de  Lalain  to  her 
brother's  cause,  205,  206 ;  her 
reception  by  Don  Juan  at  Namur, 
207-211  ;  nearly  drowned,  211, 

212  ;     her    stay    at    Lidge,    212, 

213  ;      receives    alarming    news 
from   Monsieur,   213,   214 ;    sets 
out    on    her    return    journey    to 
France,    215,    216;     her   adven- 
tures at  Huy  and  Dinant,  217- 
220  ;   outwits  the  attempt  of  the 
Spaniards  to  seize  her  at  the  latter 
town,    220-223  ;     in    a    critical 
situation,  223,  224  ;    escapes  an 
ambush  laid  for  her  by  the  Hu- 
guenots and  reaches  La  Fere  in 
safety,     225  ;      entertains    Mon- 
sieur at  La  F£re,   226  ;    visited 
by  the  Flemish  delegates,   227  ; 
returns  to  Paris,  229  ;    obtains  a 
promise  from  Henri  III.  to  permit 
her  to  return  to  her  husband  and 
to  assign  her  her  dowry  in  lands, 
229,    231  ;    shares   Anjou's   cap- 
tivity, 237  ;  assists  him  to  escape, 
238-244  ;     receives    her    dowry, 
245  ;   sets  out  with  Catherine  for 
Gascony  to  rejoin  her  husband, 
247,   248  ;     her  entry  into  Bor- 
deaux,   248  ;     her  meeting  with 
her  husband   at   Casteras,    249  ; 
visits  Agen,  Toulouse,  and  Auch, 
251  ;  her  reception  at  Nerac,  253; 
uses  her  influence  on  behalf  of 
her   husband    at    the   Treaty   of 
Nerac,    255;     difficulty    of    her 
position  at  Pau,  257  ;   intervenes 
in  favour  of  her  co-religionists, 
2S8,    259  ;     nurses   her   husband 
during  an  illness  at  Eauze,  259; 
her  life  at  Nerac,  260,  261  ;    her 
relations   with    the    Vicomte    de 
Turenne,   261  ;    beloved   by  her 
chancellor,     Pibrac,     261,     262  ; 
accused  by  Henri  III.,  in  a  letter 


Marguarite    de    Valois,    Queen    of 

Navarre — continued 
to  the  King  of  Navarre  of  a 
liaison  with  Turenne,  262,  263  ; 
her  responsibility  for  the  "  Lovers 
War,"  263-265  ;  her  indignation 
at  Biron's  blockade  of  Nerac, 
267  ;  uses  her  influence  on  behalf 
of  peace,  267,  268  ;  induces 
Monsieur  to  subdue  his  passion 
for  her  husband's  enchantress, 
Fosseuse,  269,  270  ;  her  liaison 
with  Harlay  de  Chanvallon,  270  ; 
demands  the  disgrace  of  d'Au- 
bigne,  271  ;  rebukes  the  indis- 
cretions of  Pibrac  and  dismisses 
him  from  her  service,  271,  272 
alarmed  at  the  influence  of  Fos- 
seuse over  the  King  of  Navarre, 
273,  274  ;  entertains  hope  of 
bearing  a  child,  274  ;  goes  to 
Bagneres-de-Bigorre,  274,  275  ; 
proposes  to  take  Fosseuse  away, 
276  ;  "  behaves  to  her  as  though 
she  were  her  own  daughter,"  277  ; 
accepts  Henri  III.'s  invitation  to 
visit  Paris,  278-280  ;  question  of 
the  continuation  of  her  Mtmoires 
beyond  this  date  considered,  281, 

282  and  note  ;  meets  her  mother 
at  La  Mothe  Saint-Heraye,  282  ; 
cordially  received  by  Henri  III., 

283  ;     purchases    the    H6tel    de 
Birague,  283  ;    her  letters  to  her 
husband,     283,    284  ;     dismisses 
Fosseuse  from  her  service,   284, 
285  ;    her  spirited  letter  to  the 
King  of  Navarre  in  answer  to  his 
remonstrances,  285,  286  ;    highly 
indignant   at  Chanvallon's  mar- 
riage, 287,  288  ;   mortified  at  the 
failure  of  Anjou's  Flemish  enter- 
prise,  288,   289  ;    on  bad  terms 
with  the  King  and  his  mignons, 
289,    290 ;     resumes    her    tender 
relations  with  Chanvallon,  290  ; 
dreads    the    resentment    of    the 
King,  291  ;    question  of  her   re- 
sponsibility for  the  outrage  upon 
a  royal  courier  considered,  291, 
292  ;    grossly  insulted  by  Henri 
III.  during  a  ball  at  the  Louvre, 
and  commanded  to  leave  Paris, 

292,  293  ;   sets  out  for  Venddm^, 

293,  294  ;  arrested  by  the  King's 
orders  near  Palaiseau,  and  con- 
veyed  to   the  Chateau  of  Mon- 
targis,  294,  295  ;   released  on  the 
intercession    of    Catherine,    295, 


4°5 


INDEX 


Marguerite    de    Valois,    Queen    of 

Navarre — continued 
296  ;  her  pathetic  letter  to  her 
mother,  299,  300  ;  refusal  of  the 
King  of  Navarre  to  receive  her, 
pending  a  satisfactory  explana- 
tion from  Henri  III.,  300  ;  nego- 
tiations in  regard  to  this  affair, 
300-303  ;  returns  to  her  husband, 
304,  305  ;  her  difficult  position 
at  Nerac,  305,  306 ;  refuses  to 
assist  at  the  reception  of  the  Due 
d'Epernon,  but  ultimately  con- 
sents, 307-309  ;  her  situation  in 
regard  to  her  husband  becomes 
intolerable,  312,  313;  I' affaire 
Ferrand,  313  and  note  ;  resolves 
to  leave  her  husband  and  estab- 
lish herself  as  an  independent 
princess,  314  ;  her  arrival  at 
Agen,  314-316  ;  sends  her  secre- 
tary, Choisnin,  to  the  Due  de 
Guise,  316  ;  executes  a  coup 
d'ttat  at  Agen  and  obtains  posses- 
sion of  the  town,  315-318  ;  em- 
barks upon  a  war  of  conquest, 
but  meets  with  reverses,  318, 

319  ;    shuts  herself  up  in  Agen, 

320  ;   urgently  in  need  of  money, 
320 ;     exasperates    the    Agenais 
by   her   exactions   and   tyranny, 
320,  321  ;    compelled  to  fly  by  a 
revolt   of   the    town,    and    takes 
refuge  at  the  Chateau  of  Carlat, 
in  Auvergne,  322-325  ;   dismisses 
her  secretary,  Choisnin,  for  dis- 
honesty and  insolence,  325,  326  ; 
her  dealings  with  Guise  revealed 
by  him  to  Henri  III.,  326  ;   parts 
with  a  portion  of  her  jewellery, 
326  ;    quarrels  with  the  Vicomte 
de  Duras,  327  ;   little  better  than 
a   prisoner,    327  ;     her   relations 
with   d'Aubiac   considered,    327, 
328  ;    tragic  episode  in  her  bed- 
chamber,   329 ;     removes    from 
Carlat  to  the  Chateau  of  Ibois, 
near  Issoire,  329,  330  ;    arrested 
by  the  Marquis  de  Can  iliac,  acting 
under  the  orders  of  Henri  III., 
330  ;    letters  of  the  King  to  Vil- 
leroy  concerning  her,  330  ;    con- 
veyed to  the  Chateau  of  Usson, 
332-  333  I   "  makes  her  gaoler  her 
prisoner,"     333,     334  ;      sinister 
designs   in   regard    to   her   attri- 
buted to  Henri  III.  and  Catherine, 
334.  335  ;    Usson  surrendered  to 
her  by  Camllac,   335  and  note  ; 


Marguerite    de    Valois,    Queen    of 

Navarre — continued 
her  donation  in  his  favour,  335, 
336  ;  disinherited  by  Catherine, 
in  favour  of  Charles  de  Valois, 
336  ;  her  life  at  Usson,  336-339  ; 
her  MSmoires,  339-341  ;  receives 
financial  assistance  from  her 
sister-in-law,  Elizabeth  of  Aus- 
tria, 341,  342  ;  makes  her  peace 
with  her  husband  after  his  coro- 
nation, 344  ;  opening  of  the 
negotiations  for  the  dissolution 
of  her  marriage,  344-346  ;  her 
letter  to  Duplessis-Mornay,  347  ; 
her  correspondence  with  her  hus- 
band, 348,  349  ;  unwilling  to 
make  way  for  the  elevation  of 
Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  354  and  note, 
355  ;  interrogated  at  Usson  by 
Berthier,  the  syndic  of  the  clergy, 
358  ;  her  marriage  annulled,  359  ; 
Henri  IV.'s  letter  to  her,  359, 
360  ;  her  answer,  360,  361  ;  her 
last  years  at  Usson,  364,  365  ; 
begins  a  lawsuit  against  the 
Comte  d' Auvergne,  366  ;  obtains 
permission  from  the  King  to 
reside  at  the  Chateau  of  Madrid, 
at  Boulogne-sur-Seine,  366,  367  ; 
her  arrival  at  the  Chateau  of 
Madrid,  368,  369  ;  her  interview 
with  Henri  IV.,  369,  370  ;  visited 
by  the  Dauphin,  370  ;  received 
by  their  Majesties  at  the  Louvre, 
371  ;  reconciles  several  of  the  old 
nobility  to  the  new  dynasty, 
371  ;  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
Royal  Family,  371,  372;  rents  the 
H6tel  de  Sens,  372  and  note ; 
assassination  of  her  favourite, 
Saint-Julien,  373  ;  her  letter  to 
the  King  demanding  justice  on 
the  assassin,  374  ;  witnesses  his 
execution,  374  ;  leaves  the  H6tel 
de  Sens  for  Issy,  375  ;  builds  a 
magnificent  hdtel  in  the  Fau- 
bourg Saint-Germain,  375  ;  her 
patronage  of  men-of-letters,  376  ; 
organises  fttes  for  Marie  de' 
Medici,  376,  377  ;  her  toilettes 
criticised  from  the  pulpit,  377  ; 
her  favourite,  Bajaumont,  378, 
379  ;  her  charity,  379,  380  ;  her 
benefactions  to  the  Augustines, 
380,  381  ;  assists  at  the  corona- 
tion of  Marie  de'  Medici,  381,  382  ; 
sincerely  mourns  the  death  of 
Henri  IV.,  382,  383  ;  endeavours 


406 


INDEX 


Marguerite    de    Vallois,    Queen    of 

Navarre — continued 
to  obtain  a  fair  hearing  for  the 
woman,  Comans,  383  ;  her  dis- 
creet conduct  during  the  Re- 
gency, 383  ;  gives  a  magnificent 
ball  in  honour  of  the  Duke  of 
Pastrana,  383,  384  ;  becomes 
exceedingly  devout,  385  ;  her 
favourite,  Villars,  385  ;  her  ill- 
ness and  death,  385  ;  her  burial, 
386  ;  her  character  variously 
estimated,  386-389 

Marcel  (Provost  of  the  Merchants), 
104 

Marie  (French  Ambassador  to  the 
Vatican),  70 

Marot,  8 

Marses,  Gilbert  de  (Governor  of 
Carlat),  323,  325,  327,  328  and 
note,  332 

Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scotland,  3, 
4,  12,  61,  294 

Mathieu,  Pierre  (cited),  27,  337,  387 

Matignon,  Marechal  de,  133,  239  and 
note,  240,  247,  268,  316,  318,  319, 
320,  321,  322,  323 

Maugiron,  Louis  de  (mignon  of 
Henri  III.),  231  and  note 

Mauleverier,  Comte  de,  69 

Maurevert,  or  Maurevel,  attempts 
the  assassination  of  Coligny.95,96 

Mayenne,  Charles  de  Lorraine,  Due 
de,  33  note,  41,  201,  310,  365 

Maynard,  Fran9ois  (poet),  375  note, 
37.6 

Mazillac  (physician  to  Charles  IX.), 
139 

Mendoza  (Spanish  Ambassador  at 
French  Court),  329  note,  334 

Mercosur,  Duchesse  de,  367  note 

Merki,  M.  Charles,  218 

(cited),  126,  168,  292,  336,  387 

Merlin  de  Vaulx  (Huguenot  Minis- 
ter), 67,  99 

Mezeray,  387 

(cited),  27,  77,  88  note,  180 

Michelet  (cited),  180 

Michaud  and  Poujoulat,  their  edi- 
tion of  Marguerite  de  Valois's 
Memoir  es,  341 

Michieli,  Giovanni,  Venetian  Am- 
bassador at  the  French  Court 
(cited),  86,  101,  102,  104  note 

Miossans  (equerry  to  the  King  of 
Navarre),  108,  124,  125  and  note 

Mole,  Edouard  (one  of  Marguerite 
de  Valois's  procurators  in  the 
divorce  proceedings),  357 


Mondoucet  (French  Minister  in  the 
Netherlands),  197,  198,  215 

Mongez,  131 

(cited),   42,   91,   92,    106   note, 
137  note,  203  note,  259,  264, 

337 

Montaigne,   131 
Montbrun,  126 

Montcontour,  Battle  of,  89  note 
Montesquiou,  Baron  de,  20  note 
Montigny,  Baron  de,  205,  227 
Montgommery,     Gabriel     de.     See 

Lorges,  Comte  de 
Montmorency,     Anne,     Connetable 

de,  10,  20  note 
Montmorency,    Diane    de    France, 

Duchesse  de,  367,  368 
Montmorency,   Fra^ois  de,   Mare- 
chal de,  54,  81,  99  note,  133,  144, 
232.   367,   368 
Montmorency,      Henri     de.       See 

Amville,  Due  d' 

Montmorency, Guillaume  de,  130,175 
Montpensier,  Due  de,   33,   86,    133, 

174  note,  247 

Montpensier,  Duchesse  de,  33,  248 
Morgues,  Matthieu  (cited),  379 
Montsoreau,  Comte  de,  263  and  note 
Montsoreau,  Comtesse  de,  263  note 
Mouy,  Marquis  de,  202 
Murray,   Earl  of  (Regent  of  Scot- 
land) 

NAN^AY,  Gaspard  de  la  Chatre, 
Seigneur  de,  107  a"nd  note,  108 

Nantouillet  (Provost  of  Paris),  116, 
121,  155  note,  178 

Nassau,  Louis,  Count  of,  58,  70,  103 
note 

Navarre.  See  Henri  IV.,  Jean 
d'Albret,  Marguerite  de  Valois 

Nemours,  Due  de,  43 

Nemours,  Anne  d'Este,  Duchesse 
de,  33  note,  43,  44 

Nemours,  Treaty  of,  311  and  note 

Nerac,  Treaty  of,  254,  255  and  note 

Nevers,  Ludovic  de  Gonzague,  Due 
de,  79  and  note,  136 

Nevers,  Henriette  de  Cleves,  79  and 
note,  80,  95,  loo 

Nicot  (French  Ambassador  at  Lis- 
bon), 46  and  note 

O,  FRANCOIS  d',  147,  148 

Orange.     See    William    the    Silent, 

Prince  of 
Oradour,  Jacques  d'  (mattre  d'h6tel 

to  the  Queen  of    Navarre),    137 

and  note,  343 


407 


INDEX 


Oraison,  d'  (Governor  of  Agen),  314 
Orleans,  Gaston,  Due',  377 
Ossat,  Cardinal  d',  340 
Othagaray  (cited).  77 

PALISSY,   Bernard  (architect),   366 

note 

Palma  Cayet  (cited),  77 
Papon,  Loys,  339,  386 
Pardaillan,  Hector  de,  99  and  note 
Pare,  Ambroise  (surgeon),  97,  137 
Parma,  Alexander  Farnese,  Prince 

of,  269 

Pastrana,  Duke  of,  383,  384 
Pellisson  (cited),  339 
Pereisc,  385 
Petitot,   his  edition   of  Marguerite 

de  Valois's  Memoir  es,  341 
Pfeiffer  (colonel  of  the  Swiss  mer- 
cenaries in  Charles  IX.'s  service), 

1 8 
Philip  II.,  King  of  Spain,  3,  14,  40, 

46-49,    157,    158   and  note,   207, 

310,  312  note,  320,  325,  329  note 
Philip  III.,  King  of  Spain,  365 
Philip  IV.,  King  of  Spain,  384 
Piles,  Armand  de,  81,  98 
Pibrac,  GuiduFaur, Seigneur  de,  247 

and  note,  248,  251,  255,  201,  262, 

272,  273,  303 

Pius  V.,  Pope,  47,  49,  58,  70,  73 
Poissy,  Colloquy  of  the,  7 
"  Politiques,"  Conspiracy  of  the,  126 
Pol  trot  de  Mer6  (assassin  of  Fran 

9ois,  Due  de  Guise),  12  note 
Pomini  (favourite  of  Marguerite  de 

Valois),  337  note 
Pomponne   de    Bellidvre,    301    and 

note,  302,  308,  309,  315,  316 
Pont-a-Mousson,  Marquis    de,    311 

note 

Pontchartrain  (cited),  385 
Porcien,  Prince  de,  38  and  note 
Porcien,  Princesse  de.     See  Guise, 

Duchess  of 
Poux,  Colonel,  187 

QUELUS  (favourite  of  Henri  III.), 
231,  232,  233 

RAMEE,  Daniel  (cited),  52 

Randan,  Comte  de,  338 

Ranke  (cited),  52 

Ravaillac  (assassin  of  Henri  IV.), 
382 

Rebours,  Mile,  de  (maid-of-honour 
to  the  Queen  of  Navarre),  248, 
256  and  note,  261,  274,  275 

RSge,  Paul  de  (dancing-master),  12 


Rene  (Florentine  perfumer),  77 
Reine    Margot,    la,    Dumas    pere's, 

i 06  note 
Renee  de  France,  Duchess  of  Fer- 

rara,  8 
Resigade   (favourite  of  Marguerite 

de  Valois),  337  note 
Retz,  Due  de,  69,  95,  100 
Retz,  Duchesse  de,  38 
Richelieu,  Cardinal  de  (cited),  379, 

388,  389 
Roche-sur-Yon,    Prince    de  la,    26 

note 
Roche-sur-Yon,  Princesse  de  la,  197 

and  note,  201,  202,  214,  215,  216 
Ronsard,  31,  121,  386 
Rosny.     See  Sully 
Ruffec,  Marquis  de,  147,  181 
Ruggieri,    Cosmo  (astrologer),   129, 

136  and  note 

ST.  BARTHOLOMEW,  Massacre  of,  9. 
J4>  S2'  53'  99-109.  122,  129,  136, 
137,  i6"4note,  181,  183,  188,  193 
Sainte-Beuve  (cited),  167,  339,  340 
Saint-Denis,  Battle  of,  19 
Saint-Germain,  Peace  of,  49,  51,  52, 

53, 72,  120,  190 

Saint- Julien  (favourite  of  the  Queen 

of  Navarre),337note,  373,  374,  378 

Saint-Luc  (mignon  of  Henri   III.), 

231,  233 
Saint-Mesgrin     (mignon    of    Henri 

HI.),  231 

Saint-Poncy,  Comte  Leo  de,  218 
(cited),  8,  ii,  62,  126,  168,  176, 
181,  210,   241,   253,   270  note, 
282,   292,   295,    312   note,    328 
note,  329  note,  332  note,  333, 

338,   340,  344,    349,    350,    379 
note,  387 

Salluste  du  Bartas  (Huguenot  poet), 
253  and  note 

Salviati,     Chevalier     (treasurer     to 
the  Queen  of  Navarre),  215,  225 

Sauve,  Charlotte  de  Beaune.Baronne 

de 

her  character,  162  ;  her  personal 
appearance,  162  note  ;  becomes 
the  mistress  of  Henri  of  Navarre, 
162,  163  ;  works  to  sow  dissen- 
sion between  Monsieur  and  the 
King  of  Navarre,  and  between 
the  latter  and  his  wiie,  163  ;  a 
love-letter  from  her  to  Monsieur 
read  by  Henri  III.,  236  ;  accom- 
panies Catherine  and  the  Queen 
of  Navarre  to  Gascony,  248  ;  the 
King  of  Navarre  prefers  Mile. 

408 


INDEX 


Sauve,  Charlotte  de  Beaune,  Baronne 
de — continued 

Dayelle  to  her,  249  ;   resumes  her 

tender  relations  with  him,  254  ; 

mistress  of   the  Due    de   Guise, 

264 
Savoy.     See    Emmanuel    Philibert 

and  Marguerite 
Schoeffer  (cited),  52 
Sebastian,    King   of    Portugal,    39, 

46-50,  58 

Servin,  Louis  (advocate),  385 
Simier    (chamberlain    to    the    Due 

d'Aniou),  173 

Smith,  Sir  Thomas  (English  Ambas- 
sador at  the  French  Court),  67 
Sully,  Maximilien  de  Bethune,  Due 

de.  351.  353-  354.  363.  367 

(cited),  16,  52,  254 
Strozzi,  Marechal,  142,  232,  263 
Suffren  (Jesuit),  censures  the  Queen 

of   Navarre's   coquettish   gowns, 

377.  378 

TALLEMANT  des  Reaux,  387 
(cited),  369,  377,  383,  385 

Tavannes,  Marechal  de,  20  note, 
34,  8 1,  95,  100 

Teligny,  Charles  de,  58,  81,  99,  103 

Thorigny,  Mile,  de  (maid-of-honour 
to  the  Queen  of  Navarre),  173 
and  note,  177,  178 

Thou,  J.  A.  de  (cited),  27,  77,  160, 
173,  180 

Toledo,  Don  Pedro  of  (Spanish  Am- 
bassador at  French  Court),  376 

Touchet,  Marie,  141,  336,  362 

Tournon,  Cardinal  de,  9 

Tournon,  Madame  de,  201  and  note, 
202,  214,  215 

Tournon,  Mile,  de,  201,  211,  213 

Turenne,  Vicomte  de.  See  Bouil- 
lon. 

URFE,  Honore  d',  338,  339 
Urfe,  Anne  d',  339 
Urfe,  Antoine  d',  339 
Urfe,  the  brothers  d',  386 
Uzes,  Duchesse  d',  248,  256 


VALENTINOIS,    Diane    de    Poitiers, 

Duchesse  de,  286 
Valois,  the,  2,  Si,  202,  368 
Varembon,  Marquis  de,  208,  211 
Vaudemont,  Nicolas    de    Lorraine, 

Comte  de,  154,  159  note 
Venddme.    Alexandre    de    (son    of 

Henri    IV.    and    Gabrielle    d'Es- 

trees),  352 
Venddme,    Cesar,    Due  de   (son   of 

Henri    IV.    and    Gabrielle    d'Es- 

trees),  352,  368,  369 
Vermont,  assassinates  Marguerite's 

favourite,  Saint-Julien,  373,  374 
Verneuil,  Henriette  de  Balzac  d'En- 
tragues,  Marquise  de 

infatuation  of  Henri  IV.  for  her, 

362  ;      extracts     a     conditional 
promise    of    marriage    from    the 
King,  362,  363  ;  has  a  miscarriage, 
which  renders  the  promise  void, 

363  ;     conspires    against    Henri 
IV.,    365,    366  ;     arrested,    but 
released,  365,  366 

Vervins,  Peace  of,  353 

Vezins,     Jean     de     (Seneschal     of 

Quercy),  265,  266 
Villars  (favourite  of  the  Queen  of 

Navarre),  385 
Villemain  (cited),  340 
Villeroy,  Marquis  de,  295,  330,  331, 

340 
Villequier,  Rene  de,  233  and  note, 

234 
Villesave,  Mile,  de  (maid-of-honour 

to  the  Queen  of  Navarre),  274 
Viteaux,    Baron    de,    assassinated 

Du  Guast,  178-180 

WALSINGHAM,  Sir  Francis,  67-69 
Whitehead,  Mr.  A.  W.  (cited),  102 

note 

Willert,  Mr.  P.  F.  (cited),  251 
William     the     Silent,     Prince     of 

Orange,  102  note,  205,  215,  288, 

355 

XAINTES    (waiting-woman    to    the 
Queen  of  Navarre),  261,  264 

ZAMET  (Italian  financier),  356 


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